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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap. Copyright No. 

Shelf....L.a/^07 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



HOME OCCUPATIONS 



FOR LITTLE CHILDREN 



BY 



KATHERINE BEEBE 




CHICAGO NEW YORK 

THE WERNER COMPANY 



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V 



Copyright, 1896, by Katherine Beebe 



Home Occupations for Little Children 



IPretacc. 

In this book the Kindergarten offers to 
the Home suggestions for the occupation of 
little children with simple materials. The 
author does not presuppose a kindergarten 
training on the part of the mother, nor an 
ideal environment. She simply takes for 
granted the child's ceaseless activity and 
the mother's desire to furnish him with 
material and opportunity for development. 

The occupations here considered are of 
three kinds. The first are those which 
require the active participation of an older 
person; the second, those for which only 
occasional direction or assistance is neces- 
sary; the third, those in which the child 
can engage by himself. The first two sorts 
prepare the way for an increase in the num- 
ber of the third kind of occupations, and all 
participation and help from the mother ought 
to be repaid in time by an added power and 
independence on the part of the child in 
contriving and carrying on games, plays 
and childish work by himself. K. B. 



Contents. 

CHAPTER. PAGE. 

I. "What can I do?" 6 

II. Stories and Music 17 

III. Out OF Doors 29 

IV. SUGGEISTIONS FROM THK KINDERGAR- 

TEN Gifts 46 

V. Suggestions from the Kindergar- 
ten Occupations 61 

VI. With Needi^e and Thread 72 

VII. With Paste and Scissors 82 

VIII. With Paints and Pencii^s 97 

IX. Christmas and Howday Work 105 

X. Games and Pi^ays 118 

XL Work and Pi.ay 132 

List of Materiai^ 144 



Cbapter IF. 

'*WHAT CAN I DO?" 




T is a well-known fact among 
kindergartners that many chil- 
dren who are restless, turbulent 
and unruly at home are abso- 
lutely happy and good during the morning 
hours spent in the kindergarten. Some 
mothers do not understand why this is 
so, but to the close observer of children 
its explanation is simple. Children must 
and will be active. If enough of the right 
material and opportunity is not supplied 
them, they will make use of the wrong, to 
their own and others' disturbance, for they 
are usually punished or reprimanded for 
indulging in activities which are unap- 
proved by their elders, in spite of the fact 
that approved opportunities for activity 
have not been furnished. 

In the (ideal) kindergarten, for three 
happy hours, the child has a place, a time and 

6 



6 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

an opportunity for a natural growth, during 
which time he expresses himself freely in 
play. He has materials with which and 
playmates with whom to play. He has the 
sympathy and participation of his elders. 
He has the help he needs in carrying out 
his ideas. He is allowed to work in his 
own way, and he is never heard to say, 
"What can I do?" As a consequence, he 
is both happy and good. 

Could some such conditions prevail at 
home during the rest of the day, many a 
household would be more comfortable, and 
many a little child transformed from a 
* * troublesome comfort " to a constant de- 
light. 

The child wants something to do, and he 
must have it. Even after the hours which 
can be spent out of doors are added to those 
during which he occupies himself with his 
toys, and to those when he can be directly 
amused by mother or nurse, and their sum 
subtracted from the whole number of his 
waking hours, there still remains that ach- 
ing void filled too often with the fretful 



What Can I Do f 



cry, ''What can I do?" and a mother's 
unaccepted suggestions. 

" Play with your blocks," she says. 

" I don't want to; I don't know anything 
to make. ' ' 

**Well, why don't you play with your 
horses ? ' ' 

** I don't want to play with my horses ! " 

* ' Run down into the kitchen a while and 
see Maggie." 

** I don't want to ! There isn't an5i:hing 
to do down there." And so on, the result 
of such conversations being all too often that 
he stays with his mother and her guest, 
either destroying the comfort of both by his 
restlessness, or sitting quietly listening to 
conversation which introduces him before 
his time into the adult world. Surely, any- 
thing which will tend to keep him at such 
times in a child's world of play is worth 
considering. 

Mother and nurse must supply themselves 
with resources for these hours. There is 
always a supply of food in the pantry, of 
clothes in the closets, of remedies in the 



8 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

medicine chest, and of other things necessary 
to physical comfort and well-being, but 
there needs to be as well a supply of mental 
food and stimulus, if the child's mind is to 
have the power of occupying his hands in a 
way to keep him normally happy and good. 
The time is coming when mothers will no 
more fail to supply the cry of ' ' What can I 
do ? " than they now fail to satisfy that 
other cry, '' Mamma, I am hungry! " The 
time is coming when a kindergarten train- 
ing will be a part of every high school, sem- 
inary and college course. It is in the hope 
of placing something in the play-larder that 
the following chapters are written. 

If a child is to play, it goes without say- 
ing that he must have a place in which to 
play; and yet we know that in many houses 
there is little or no space which he can call 
his own. Remembering that a child's de- 
velopment, physical, mental and moral, 
comes to him through play, it seems strange 
indeed that so little regard is paid to play- 
space in our domestic and civic economy. 
Even out of doors the children are not very 



What Can I Do? 



well provided for, except in the country. 
In cities and towns the boys are hounded 
from one place to another by irate property- 
owners, who do not care where they disport 
themselves so long as they keep away from 
their particular premises. They are not 
even wanted in vacant lots, each set of 
neighbors driving them away to some other 
lot. If they play in the streets, pedestrians 
and drivers are always interfering with 
games, and people want door-steps and co- 
pings kept clean. 

Indoors it is even worse, for the space 
available in the average home of the middle 
class citizen does not permit a special play- 
room, and the place where play can be 
carried on freely is usually a small bedroom 
or part of one, neither of which localities 
ajffords scope enough for expanding in- 
genuity. 

It is a pleasure to kindergartners to ob- 
serve the children's delight in the space, 
pure and simple, of a good-sized room, and 
that alone serves to occupy them for con- 
siderable periods of time, for they can run, 



10 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

jump, throw, dance and do many other 
things with only themselves and elbow-room 
for material. 

I have no definite suggestions to offer as 
to play-space in the home. Each mother's 
problem is a different one, but she who is 
convinced that her children need play-room 
as much as they need food or light will 
manage in some way to secure it for them. 
There may be mothers who would reduce 
their number of parlors from two to one; 
there may be others who, at some personal 
sacrifice, would build on an extra room; 
some might sacrifice the order of one par- 
ticular room, and others might even be 
driven to the extremity of purchasing fold- 
ing beds. One mother whom I know sur- 
renders her dining-room, except at meal 
times. Another has turned the unused barn 
into a day nursery. The way follows the 
will, and sacrifices of this sort are generally 
rewarded a hundred fold. 

Servants are often fond of children and 
willing to help them in their plays, but they 
are, as a rule, without resource and unable 



What Can I Do f 11 



to suggest occupation outside of their own 
range. Nothing is better for children than 
a participation in the work of the house, 
and nothing is more deHghtful to them in 
their earliest years. Happy is the mother 
who has a cook, housemaid or other servant 
to whom she can explain the necessity of 
allowing the children to '*help," and who 
will, with some degree of intelligence, fol- 
low her suggestions. 

Many a servant has both time and inclina- 
tion to be of real service to the children of 
the house, if she but knew how to do it. 
If the mother's head be enlisted in the 
cause as well as her heart, she can make 
good use of this friendly feeling by furnish- 
ing a little stimulus and material when it is 
impossible for her to give her own time to 
her little ones. 

The companionship of servants, while it 
may be disastrous and sometimes is perni- 
cious, is not altogether the evil some would 
have us think. Too much of it would, of 
course, subject a child, during the plastic 
period, to influences which any mother 



12 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

would deplore; but, like all other forces, when 
handled and used judiciously, it may have 
its good uses. Servants are oftentimes more 
near to the child's state of mind than his 
adult relatives. They are frequently only 
grown-up children, and really enjoy child- 
like employments. Irish girls are born 
child-lovers and sympathizers. The Swedes, 
while less demonstrative, are usually honest 
and trustworthy. To share the work of 
these friendly members of the household, 
and to share with them their own little in- 
terests, is usually a part of every child's 
life where there are servants in the family; 
and so, if from the play-larder the mother 
can give to those servants into whose hands 
the children must fall occasionally some 
material or suggestions, both servant and 
child will not only be made more comforta- 
ble, but many an evil hour will be kept 
from taking a place in the time-chain of the 
child's existence. 

Children, to be truly happy, must have 
the companionship of other children. Most 
parents, believing this, allow their children 



What Can I Do ? 13 



friends and playmates; but there are moth- 
ers who, in their desire to keep the child's 
mind uncontaminated, deprive him of this 
necessary stimulus. Students of child-nature 
are beginning to think that there is less dan- 
ger from chance companionships than has 
been imagined, presupposing a sound home 
training. Just as a sound body resists ex- 
posure and contagion, and throws off dis- 
ease which is the undoing of a weaker one, 
so a sound mind and healthy soul will resist 
evil. Unless a child's companions are known 
to be really objectionable, the evil of no 
companionship is apt to be greater than 
the risk run in letting him play with his 
mates. 

Other mothers there are who, in their de- 
voted absorption in their children, forget or 
ignore this need of child-life. That their 
own companionship is not enough does not 
occur to them. Such mothers should at 
least try the experiment of allowing their 
children to play with others of the same 
age before coming to the conclusion that 
playmates are unnecessary. 



14 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

Our country is full not only of children 
who are suffering for companionship; it is 
also full of respectable, hard-working fami- 
lies who have so many children that but 
few advantages and little attention can be 
given them. Some sort of social exchange, 
with schools and kindergartens for centers, 
seems a possibility of the future in the con- 
sideration of these problems. 

It has been stated that there are 350,000 
homeless children in the United States, but 
happily we hear every little while of one 
family and another who has taken one of 
these little ones in, either to brighten a 
childless home or to bring companionship 
to a lonely little only child. In this latter 
case, it is hard to say which child is the 
more benefited. 

Many articles have been written by kin- 
dergartners of more or less experience, with 
the alluring title of ' * The Kindergarten in 
the Home," which have proved disappoint- 
ing to the reader. The writer either pre- 
supposes a kindergarten training on the part 
of the mother which does not exist, or the 



JVhaf Can I Do ? 15 



directions are too elaborate to be easily fol- 
lowed. Often the ideas suggested, when 
carried out, yield but scant results, the 
work occupying the average child about ten 
minutes, more or less, at the end of which 
period both mother and child are about 
where they were before. I recall one such 
article, which, when boiled down, conveyed 
to the mother the two ideas that the kinder- 
garten balls should be introduced into the 
nursery, and that with a four-inch square of 
folding paper many beautiful forms could be 
made. 

More than this is necessary. The kinder- 
garten has much to offer to the home in the 
way of helpful suggestions, and it can do this 
without asking the mother to do at home 
the same things that are done in the kin- 
dergarten by trained teachers. Often mate- 
rials which can be used and work which can 
be done in the kindergarten are impractica- 
ble in the home, and vice versa. The home 
needs the kindergarten to lead the way and 
provide stimulus to developing action. The 
kindergarten needs the home to complete. 



16 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

carry out and extend work which can be 
only begun in the limited time at the kin- 
dergartner's disposal. The principles of 
Froebel can be applied to the chairs, pans, 
spools, buttons and strings with which the 
child occupies himself at home, and it can 
also impart a new life and suggestiveness to 
toys, pets and all home materials. 





Cbapter irif. 

STORIES AND MUSIC. 

HE child at times needs from the 
adult assistance in storing his 
mind with play material, in 
order that at other times he may- 



have a stock of ideas from which to draw. 
His imagination needs food and stimulus 
other than that supplied by the ordinary hap- 
penings of his daily life. This is proven in 
the kindergarten by the difference in the 
power to play existing between children who 
come from homes where this stimulus is sup- 
plied, and those who come from homes where 
it is lacking. The more fortunate little ones 
are seldom at a loss for play material, while 
the others often have actually to be taught 
to play those games in which thought and 
imagination play a part. 

Children of this first class, as we all know, 
love to dramatize the life about them, are 

17 



18 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

fond of games which are largely, if not 
wholly, of a physical nature, and will in- 
dulge both of these tendencies freely, but 
while in spite of this they continue to de- 
mand "something to do," we who have 
charge of them will have to continue our 
search for opportunities and employments 
for their active minds and bodies if we are 
not to give stones for bread and serpents for 
fish. 

In the homes of the poor, for obvious 
reasons, the children seldom have stories 
told to them, rarely if ever hear story books 
read, and never have music adapted to their 
minds and hearts provided for them. Con- 
sequently the beautiful imagery of song 
and story is lost to them. Their imagina- 
tions are starved and their souls often remain 
una wakened long past the time for such un- 
folding, while many powers never develop 
at all which exist potentially in them. It is 
true that poets and artists sometimes come 
from very humble walks of life, but in most 
cases Genius or Nature provided the neces- 
sary stimulus. Happily the schools of to- 



stories and Music. 19 

day are doing for the less fortunate what is 
done for the more fortunate at home. 

It is with the children of the ordinary 
well-to-do class that we have now to deal, 
however, and we know that these children 
love stories told and read, and that their souls 
open to music. These things are such potent 
factors in, and such a vital part of kinder- 
garten life, that they surely belong in the 
child's home-life as well. Kindergartners 
never have time enough with their children 
to give them half the songs and stories which 
they really want to give, and they would be 
glad to pass over to the home their uncom- 
pleted work and store of material to help 
fill those hours which echo with the cry, 
* ' What can I do now f In the kinder- 
garten the stories are not told and then dis- 
missed as something finished and gotten 
through with. They are carefully selected 
in the first place, and there is a pedagogical 
reason for each selection with which just 
now we have nothing to do. One prime ob- 
ject is to feed the growing imagination and 
stock it with play material, as well as, in 



20 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

technical phrase, to help the child to self- 
expression. The stories told are not only 
retold by the children later on, but they are 
also ' ' worked out;" that is, the children pic- 
ture the story, or such part of it as appeals 
to them, on the blackboard or with paper 
and pencil. They also play it with their 
blocks and sticks ; they model objects sug- 
gested by it with clay ; they cut these objects 
from paper, sew them or paint them, as the 
exigency of the occasion demands. 

Children love the definite, and gladly take 
and work out definite suggestions. When 
clay, paint, paper, or other material is put 
into a child's hands and he is told to play 
with it, an active imagination will sometimes 
supply a sufficiency of ideas to be expressed, 
but usually he soon reaches his limita- 
tions, if not on the first occasion then very 
soon after, and will be apt to say, '* I don't 
know what to make. ' ' 

* ' Oh, make a horse ! ' ' mother or nurse 
will suggest. 

" I don't want to make a horse," says the 
child, in whose mind only images of in- 



stories and Music. 21 

definite and general horses are called up by 
the word. But, if after hearing Longfellow's 
beautiful story of " The Bell of Atri," that 
particular horse is suggested, it becomes an- 
other matter, and one object often suggests 
another, until the whole story is worked out 
by busy fingers stimulated by a live imagi- 
nation. 

The mother then wants from the kinder- 
gartner a list of stories to be told and of 
books to be read which shall fill her child's 
mind with beautiful images which can be 
expressed by the little hands so anxious to 
do. She should adopt in the nursery the 
kindergarten method of working out or 
making these stories with whatever material 
is at hand. These home stories should not 
only fill the time in which they are read or 
told, but many happy after hours; often 
only a suggestion will be necessary to set 
the children to work, and sympathy and 
appreciation only will keep them at it. 

With some children the mother may find 
it necessary to participate actively in the 
play to show the children how it may be 



22 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

done, and to get them started; but this she 
will not accomplish by play ing/^r them, but 
by playing with them, and encouraging their 
efforts by judicious praise and admiration. 

Stories are dramatized in the kindergarten 
with great success, and children who can be 
led to do this at home will have an inex- 
haustible store of material for play hours. 
I know of one group of ten-year-old chil- 
dren who played * * The Prince and the 
Pauper ' * a whole winter, and of another 
who played ' ' Robinson Crusoe ' ' day in and 
day out. One little home kindergarten went 
to Greenland one snowy day and lived there 
for three weeks. 

If the mother's own imagination will seize 
upon those particular stories which are best 
adapted to dramatic action, if she will aid 
the children a little in their representations, 
occasionally take part, and always sympa- 
thize, she will soon develop a dramatic 
talent, which, to say the least, will make 
stormy days interesting in her household. 

As a rule it is hardly wise for the mother 
and kindergartner to be using the same ma- 



stories and Music. 23 

terial in the same way. Fortunately this is 
rarely done, as only a trained kindergartner 
has the power of using the material without 
wearying the child or reaching his limita- 
tions too soon. Mothers are often made to 
feel that the knowledge they lack and should 
possess is the knowledge which kindergart- 
ners use in giving gift and occupation lessons. 
Not that this knowledge would not be of 
great advantage to any mother, but the point 
is that there is much that she can do without 
it. Such a profound knowledge of the pos- 
sibilities of the gifts and occupations as 
would enable her to continue, enlarge and 
supplement the kindergartner' s work would 
be of the greatest use, but to be able to give 
the child the same work with blocks or 
sticks which he has had or will have in the 
kindergarten is of no particular advantage, 
except when the child cannot go to the kin- 
dergarten. 

In the matter of stories, however, she need 
have no fears of trenching on kindergarten 
ground. When a child loves a story he 
will hear it many times, and one often-told 



24 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

and well-loved tale is frequently better than 
many. 

One direct help which the kindergartner 
craves of the mother is her encouragement 
to the child to retell at home the stories he 
has heard in the kindergarten. If in addi- 
tion to this he will at home play or work out 
these stories the kindergartner 's work will 
be carried on. 

Some stories are better told than read, 
others make good reading, and it is impor- 
tant that a child should learn early to listen to 
reading. For children under three years old 
there are no better books than the bound vol- 
umes of ' ' Babyland;* ' ' ' The Baby World, ' ' 
compiled from St. Nicholas; "Mother 
Goose;" and the "Finger Plays," by 
Emilie Poulsson. For the four-year-olds get 
the bound and current volumes of ' * Child 
Garden;" and " In the Child's World," by 
Emilie Poulsson. For the children of five 
and six there are "The Story Hour," by 
Kate Douglas Wiggin ; " In Story land, ' ' by 
Elizabeth Harrison ; the new editions of 
Grimm and Andersen, Bible Stories, Greek 



Stories and Music. 25 

and Norse myths; ^^sop's Fables; tales from 
Roman and American History; Jane An- 
drews' books; ''Seaside and Wayside," by 
Julia McNair Wright ; ' * Adventures of a 
Brownie," by Miss Mulock; some of Miss 
Alcott's stories for little children, and such 
poems for children as Kliot, Childs, Whit- 
tier, Stevenson and Field have written or 
selected for us. Susan Coolidge has written 
some very good tales for young children, and 
there are, of course, many others which time 
and space forbid me to mention. Some classic 
stories which are excellent for telling are 
''Rip Van Winkle," "The Pied Piper," 
" The Bell of Atri," " Paul Revere," and 
*' Rhoecus." If to this list is added bound 
and current volumes of "St. Nicholas," 
"Six-year-old" will have a very fair 
library. 

Much of what has been said of stories ap- 
plies also to music. In the kindergarten the 
songs are dramatized and often worked out 
with different kinds of material. If at home 
the child sings for his mother and other mem- 
bers of the household, if he is aided in 



26 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

the correct use of words and tones, the kin- 
dergartner's work is continued. It often 
happens that in teaching a song little brains 
do not always get the ideas which the words 
of the song and the teacher's explanations 
are designed to convey. In the necessary 
concert teaching many a small mistake es- 
capes the ear of the kindergartner which 
the mother can correct. For instance, one 
little girl sang for the words ' ' All for the 
little ones' Christmas joys," *' All for the 
little ones' Christmas George,^' and the 
teacher was greatly obliged to the mother 
for detecting and correcting a mistake which 
probably would have escaped her entirely. 

In all homes, whether the children attend 
a kindergarten or not, the beautiful song 
books of these latter days should be in use. 
Mother and children should sing together, 
the children should be taught to sing for 
others, and where it is possible the song- 
story should be acted out in a play spirit. 
These song books furnish music for almost 
every occasion in child-life, and songs learned 
by the children can be used in a way that 



stories and Music. 27 

will make life happier for all who hear them. 
No kindergartner needs to say that she dis- 
approves unqualifiedly of showing children 
off. Mothers still do this to their own and 
the children's undoing, and the songs and 
plays of the kindergarten seem to furnish 
added temptation to these fond and foolish 
parents to go on with the process of brush- 
ing off the bloom of childish unconscious- 
ness. But children can sing for others with- 
out being shown off. Christmas, Thanks- 
giving and Easter songs can be sung on the 
occasions for father. Groups of neighbor- 
hood children can give little serenades and 
concerts to friends and neighbors judicious 
enough to listen respectfully and comment 
sensibly. What invalid or convalescent 
would not rejoice to hear songs sung by 
happy children's voices? What family fes- 
tival would not be sweeter for the childish 
songs which voice the soul of the occasion ? 
There are a few homes where the mother 
or father, or both, can and will take the 
time to sing with the children, to teach 
them the beautiful songs which are so many 



28 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

that the teacher can only use a fraction of 
them, to learn the songs which they sing in 
school or kindergarten, and so to have in 
their home music for the children as well as 
for themselves. 

Among the approved present day music 
books for children are those prepared by 
Eleanor Smith, one by Mildred and Patty 
Hill, the Reinike Collection, Tomlins' 
" Child Garden of Song" and other books, 
and the St. Nicholas songs. 

With any or all of these books many a 
happy evening hour can be passed and many 
a profitable Sunday afternoon, for the devo- 
tional songs in these collections are good 
vtusic, which is more than can be said of 
most Sunday school melodies. With their 
aid and the mother's, the house may become 
musical with child- like songs, and delightful 
surprises and joyous occasions provided for. 
Mental and spiritual food for growing minds 
and souls can be given in this way, and the 
store of play material enhanced as well. 




Cbapter iririF. 

OUT OF DOORS. 

HE Nature Study of schools and 
kindergartens is full of suggest- 
iveness for the home occupation 
of little children in their out- 
door hours and vacation days. The province 
of the kindergarten in the matter of Science 
teaching, and also of the nursery, is chiefly 
to inspire a love of nature and her works in 
the children, although by so doing the ob- 
servation is quickened and all the faculties 
aroused. All analysis and classifying should 
come later. 

It is a mistake to think that little children 
unaided will become observers and lovers of 
Nature. We of the present generation have 
but to look back to our own childhood to 
prove that. In spite of a child's love of 
out- door life and his keen interest in all he 
sees, that interest will become dulled and 
blunted if his questions are not answered 

29 



30 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

and his efforts appreciated. His very love 
for out doors may become a purely phys- 
ical feeling, and he can soon become both 
blind and deaf to Nature's teachings. On 
the other hand it is very easy to lead a little 
child from his Heaven-sent beginning in Na- 
ture Study into a real love for and intelli- 
gent interest in all natural phenomena. The 
chief necessaries for this are appreciation 
of and sympathy with his efforts, to which 
must be added opportunity for further obser- 
vation. To be much out of doors with the 
children, to follow their restless leadings, to 
be interested where they are interested, and 
to be able to lead them into * * other fields 
and pastures new ' * when they are ready to 
go, is to " live with our children" as Froe- 
bel hoped we should some day. 

This lover of children laid great stress 
on sense games in his book for mothers. He 
would have them train the senses of their 
children to acuteness and discrimination by 
means of play. In one kindergarten this 
idea was carried out last September by 
means of the fruits so abundant at that time. 



Out of Doors. 31 

A number of these were provided, the num- 
ber suited to the ages and abilities of the 
children, who named them and counted 
them, and also drew them with colored 
chalk. One child's eyes being blindfolded, 
another child hid one of the fruits. It was 
then the turn of the blinded one to guess 
which fruit was missing, and if he guessed 
correctly he was " heartily cheered;" if his 
guess was wrong, he tried again another 
time. This was played as long as the chil- 
dren were interested, and on another occa- 
sion a game of guessing feeling the fruits, 
filled a half hour, while still later they were 
guessed by smelling and tasting. Such games 
as these, when taught to children and played 
occasionally with them, ought to set them 
going in this particular direction to their own 
physical, mental and spiritual upbuilding. 
Older children delight in these simple kin- 
dergarten games and seldom have the oppor- 
tunity they wish to learn and use them. In 
their playing school or playing kindergar- 
ten they could amuse both themselves and 
younger brothers and sisters in this way, for 



32 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

the games can be played with nuts, leaves, 
shells, stones, blocks, flowers, grains, chil- 
dren, and miscellaneous objects. 

Nuts make delightful playthings used 
after this manner, and kindergarten children 
delight in playing they are squirrels and 
hunting the nuts previously hidden by one 
of their number, especially if privileged 
to eat the nuts at the end of the game. 
Hunting nuts in the real woods is a psycho- 
logical basis for this play as well as a joy 
which children should taste oftener than 
they usually do, for in these days of rail- 
roads and electric cars the woods are not so 
very far off, and once a year at least there 
should be a nutting party in every well- 
regulated family. 

If in the Indian Summer days, after the 
leaves are ofF the trees and the birds have 
flown, a collection of nests could be made 
from the woods, parks or suburbs, by means 
of excursions in company with a boy of tree- 
climbing age and propensities, a work worth 
doing would be wrought in the minds and 
hearts of all concerned. 



Out of Doors. 33 

Nothing gives children more pleasure in 
the Fall than milkweed pods full of the 
"dainty milkweed babies." Go where 
these are to be found in September or Octo- 
ber ; bring them home and let them dry in 
the house ; explain to the children why they 
are furnished with wings and how the wind 
plants them ; let them have some pods to 
play with out of doors on windy days ; and 
let them make pretty winter bouquets of dry 
clusters of the pods for friends and relatives, 
lyittle girls can make down pillows of the 
seeds for their dolls, and an ambitious child 
could even collect enough for a down pillow 
for a real baby. Thistle down can also be 
used in this way. 

During the autumn the different kinds of 
seeds and seed-pods greatly interest the 
children, who would enjoy gathering them 
if there was any reason which appealed to 
them for so doing. The interest of the 
older people in such a collection is sufficient 
oftentimes to stimulate them to effort, but 
a real object, such as saving for next year's 
garden, making a collection for a present 



34 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

to somebody, or gathering quantities to be 
sent to city relations, city kindergartens or 
anyone poor or sick, appeals more to the 
child. He is a reasonable little being and 
does not care to do things which are not 
' ' worth while, ' ' much more than we do. 
An examination of the seeds with a micro- 
scope will repay anyone, and no child will 
fail to be interested in the perfectly formed 
leaves tucked up in many seeds all ready for 
next year. 

When the leaves begin to fall, playthings 
are literally showered on those children 
whose eyes and hearts true sympathy has 
opened. It is a commonly pathetic sight in 
autumn days to see a little child gathering 
the bright leaves with a wistful what-can-I- 
do-with-you expression, only to throw them 
away. If he brings them into the house, 
they are often unnoticed and uncared for, 
and the most he can expect is to have them 
put into a glass of water and forgotten. 
Kindergarten children bring leaves to their 
teachers by the bushel and the wise use 
made of them in the child-garden can also 



Out of Doors. 35 

be made of them at home. The names can 
be learned; guessing games can be played 
with them; they can be traced, drawn and 
painted; beautiful borders and patterns can 
be laid with them; tea-tables can be deco- 
rated with them; wreaths and festoons can 
transform the child into an autumn picture 
for his father; they can also be pressed, var 
nished and waxed. In our kindergarten 
the waxed leaves of last October decorate 
our tables during the rest of the year for 
birthday or other parties. 

In the great masses of dead rustling 
leaves are delightful places to play squirrel 
and rabbit games, and for a romp, what 
material is better adapted for tossing, roll- 
ing and throwing? Children will rake 
leaves patiently, if, when father comes home, 
they can be present at the bonfire, and to 
go to the woods with older friends and bring 
home great bouquets of red and yellow to 
make the house beautiful is a long remem- 
bered joy. 

Baskets of acorns will be gladly gathered 
if they can be used, and in many a city kin- 



36 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

dergarten they would be treasures indeed. 
The double acorn cups can be strung by 
slipping the string between the two cups. 
These productions give much pleasure to the 
children who have to find the double acorns 
and string them, as well as to the baby- 
brother, sister or neighbor to whom they 
can be presented. 

Corn-cobs in quantity made in olden times, 
and still make, charming playthings, and 
a corn-husk dolly would be a greater treas- 
ure than one from a store to many an in- 
dulged child. Wild cucumbers and tooth- 
picks will stock a minature farm with 
bristling pigs, and the vines can be grown 
in almost any spot of earth where there is 
good soil. Stones always interest children, 
but the interest is a fleeting one for the rea- 
son that limitations are reached so soon. If 
a place is prepared for a collection of the 
most attractive stones, and if the mother can 
tell her child a little of their history, an 
added stimulus to patient hunting and sort- 
ing is given. Duplicate collections can be 
made for friends and sick children, and 



Out of Doors. 37 

bottles containing a little water filled with 
bright colored pebbles make a gift for a con- 
valescent which will afford him a little, and 
the giver much pleasure. 

The bright berries of autumn, the haws, 
thorn-apples, and cranberries are beautiful 
for stringing purposes, making a pleasant 
change from beads and buttons. In season, 
clover heads, dandelion heads and the tiny 
flowers which make up the lilac's blossom 
make good material for stringing, and this 
industry should be added to the familiar oc- 
cupations of making dandelion curls and 
chains. 

Get a sheet of dark bronze paper on whose 
white side flying birds can be traced from 
a pattern. The model can be drawn and 
cut out of pasteboard, or a picture be 
made to serve the purpose. Let the chil- 
dren trace and cut out a flock of these 
birds; fasten them high up on the nursery 
wall headed south in the fall, and make 
others which can head north in the spring. 
Sets of these can be made for friends and 
saved for Christmas and birthday gifts; for 



88 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

a present which is not the child's own has 
Httle value, as a gift, in his eyes compared 
with one which has cost him eiBfort or sacri- 
fice. 

Where children can have the use of ham- 
mers and nails they can make crude bird 
houses in which real birds will live all sum- 
mer, and they will often spend a half-hour 
raveling out bits of coarsely woven cloth, 
which, hung on bushes, trees or fences in 
the spring, are to furnish the birds with 
nest-building material. 

A globe, or other receptacle, in which 
fish can be kept will be a treasure to children 
old enough to go about alone or fortunate 
enough to possess a grown-up real friend 
who will take them occasionally where they 
want to go. It will give a reason for the 
collection of frog's eggs, tadpoles, tiny min- 
nows, crawfish and mussels. How chil- 
dren love these things, and how seldom is it 
worth their while to bring them home we 
both know and remember ! * * They are very 
interesting, dear," says mamma, trying to 
repress a look of disgust, "but we have no 



Out of Doors. 39 

place to keep such things. Throw them 
away. ' ' A tub in which water from their 
own homes and breeding places can be placed 
seems to agree best with tadpoles, by the 
way. 

To learn the trees by name, to know their 
blossoms and seed is a pursuit in which old 
and young may join with mutual pleasure 
and profit. The country is full of thriving 
little seedling trees which, striving for life 
in vacant lots, parkways and roadsides, 
would one day become real trees, if trans- 
planted into an amateur nursery. Some one 
once suggested that, if for every child bom, 
a tree, seedling, or seed were planted the 
forestry problem would be solved. 

A miniature fruit farm can be made by 
planting apple, peach, plum, pear, cherry, 
orange or lemon seeds, and, while it may 
never reach a very advanced state, the plant- 
ing of the seeds, the watching for the first 
shoots, and the observation of the tiny trees 
will fill up some of those industrial vacancies 
for which we are trying to provide. When 
we were children there were few springs 



40 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

when we did not plant a vegetable garden 
in an old dish-pan or cheese-box, using for 
planting purposes one potato, one beet, one 
onion, one turnip, and one anything else we 
could get. I do not remember that there 
was ever any outcome to this agricultural 
enterprise, but I have a very distinct recol- 
lection of the pleasure this tilling of the soil 
gave to me. I will add that we lived in a 
city and that our backyard was boarded 
over, but to the true farmer- spirit all things 
are possible. 

The collecting of cocoons in the fall will 
give occupation at that time as well as later 
on when the moths come out. These are 
found in both city and country, and a study 
of them will prove most interesting. 

Of the small snail shells found on the lake 
shore, and in gravel piles, strings can be 
made, as they usually have holes in them. 
A child will hunt patiently for these treas- 
ures even when he has not the hope of using 
them. Babies and younger children are de- 
lighted recipients of such gifts as these, and 
the fact that they so soon tire of them need 



Out of Doors. 41 

not affect either the work or the satisfaction 
of the donor. 

Drinking cups can be made of large leaves 
pinned together by their stems, and those of 
us who read the Rollo books long ago re- 
member that the backs of the lilac leaves can 
be used for slates if pins are the pencils. I 
have known kindergarten graduates to repro- 
duce their brief educational experience, using 
pebbles, twigs, leaves, dandelion stems and 
burrs for material. The pebbles were seeds, 
the twigs sticks, the leaves folding papers, 
and the burrs clay. They even wove coarse 
grass into mats and did pricking with thin 
leaves and stiff grasses. The burdock's 
prickly seed-pod can be made, not only into 
baskets and nests, but into animals, furniture 
and almost any sort of object. It is well to 
protect little hands with old gloves for this 
work, for the burrs leave invisible splint- 
ers in the fingers, which are very uncomfor- 
table. Until one has tried it one does not 
knov>^ how lifelike and satisfactory to the 
children are the squirrels, rabbits, dogs, cats 
and elephants which can be made of either 



42 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

the green or the brown burrs. The golden 
rod galls can, with a knife and the addition 
of grasses or stems, be transformed into 
tiny vases and dishes. Flower dolls make 
beautiful fairies with their pansy, daisy or 
dandelion faces, their leaf shawls and poppy 
or morning glory skirts, and ' 'pea-pod boats 
with rose-leaf sails" are delightful possi- 
bilites. 

I know one child whose delight it was to 
make fairy-lands, filling a shady corner or 
shallow box with moss-covered earth in 
which she planted miniature trees, flowers 
and shrubs, sinking a saucer, which could 
be filled with water, into the ground for a 
lake. 

On the lake or seashore the construction 
of geographical formations, hills, moun- 
tains, islands and rivers, gives even a little 
child at times more satisfaction than his 
own rather aimless building of houses. One 
group of children last summer made the 
Michigan fruit farms and a smaller I<ake 
Michigan, over whose waters fruit-laden 
boats sailed to city markets. 



Out of Doors. 43 

Radical as it sounds water makes a de- 
lightful plaything, but it is seldom used 
because — it is too much trouble! Happy- 
is the child equipped for play in a fresh 
puddle left by the rain, or in a tub of water 
in the back yard! Happy is the child who 
is sometimes dressed for a frolic in a warm 
summer shower, who on hot days is allowed 
to play in the bath-tub or with the hose! 
Happy are those children who, when taken 
to shore or beach, are dressed, or undressed, 
so that they will not have to be cautioned 
every other minute not to get wet! The 
old familiar rhyme beginning ''Mother, 
may I go out to swim ? ' ' — you know the rest 
— would be appreciated by many children 
on lake shore and ocean beach if they hap- 
pened to know it. 

Mother Nature with her sunshine, rain, 
wind, hail, snow and various commotions 
and combinations of the elements is always 
ready to play with the children, and they 
with her, were they only allowed to do so. 
They are not allowed because of the fear 
that they will soil or injure their clothes, 



44 Home Occupations fo7' Little Children. 

hurt themselves, take cold, or be too much 
trouble to some one, and so they lose many 
hours which, through the happiest play, 
might bring to them health, courage, free- 
dom and joy. 

The catnip by the roadsides can be gath- 
ered into bunches and dried for Christmas 
gifts to all the owners of pussy-cats in the 
family connection. Gifts of freshly gath- 
ered chickweed and plantain seeds will be 
appreciated by bird owners, who too often 
forget or neglect to procure these delicacies 
for their pets. 

lyittle house gardens can be made in boxes 
of earth, sponges or cotton. Sweet potato 
vines can be grown in a wide-mouthed jar 
or bottle filled with water, and all of these 
simple things bring pleasure and profit to 
the children if only ' ' somebody cares. ' ' 
The little folks will be glad to be taken into 
partnership with the mother who cultivates 
house plants. 

The real out-door garden should be a part 
of every child's life, but here again "too 
much trouble' ' deprives children of a heaven- 



Old of Doors. 45 

sent pleasure and means of development. 
To help a child plant a garden and teach 
him to take care of it is a task, such a task 
as it is worth while to attend to as one would 
attend to the making of beds or dusting of 
furniture. When once we take hold of a 
thing and make a regular business of it, it 
ceases to be a care and an annoyance. This 
rule holds good in regard to many of the 
things which we ought to do with and for 
our children, things which we leave to 
chance or do not do at all. 

To bring flowers of his own raising into 
the family life or to take them to friends, 
invalids, hospital or city, is a spiritual experi- 
ence of which children should not be de- 
prived. Give them a chance to ' ' continue 
in well-doing' ' and to exercise unselfishness. 

It is useless to start a child's garden and 
expect him to take care of it alone and of his 
own accord. He needs to be lead by sym- 
pathy and participation to the joys of frui- 
tion for many seasons, in order that in time 
he may become a true nature-lover and 
gardener. 



B 



(Tbapter W. 

SUGGESTIONS FROM THK KINDER- 
GARTEN GIFTS. 

OTHERS are usually urged by 
kindergartners and others to 
get the Hailman Beads for home 
use, but the possibilities of this 
gift are soon exhausted if one does not know 
a little about it. These beads are much 
used in the kindergarten and perhaps if a 
child attends one regularly he will get as 
much of this particular play there as he 
needs. For children who cannot go to a 
kindergarten there is no better plaything, 
and little folks of three and four years of 
age will spend many a quiet hour by 
mother's side with them, needing very little 
actual help beyond a few directions and the 
ever-necessary sympathy. 

These beads are small one-half inch 
spheres, cubes and cylinders, both colored 

46 



Suggestions from the Kindergarten Gifts. 47 

and uncolored. For form-work the latter 
are the better, and both kinds can be bought 
by the box or in bulk. I have never yet 
seen a kindergarten which had a sufficient 
quantity of them, and I have never yet seen 
a lay purchaser who did not consider one 
box an ample quantity, and who did not 
wonder later on why the baby cared so little 
about stringing them. 

I would advise the purchase of this gift 
in bulk, one lot of uncolored, and another 
lot of colored beads, and more of the latter 
than the former. Instead of gi\'ing them 
at once to the child for desultory, haphazard 
and general play, they should be put away 
and for some time only brought out when a 
definite work or play can be instigated and 
guided. If this is done the beads will long 
remain a thing to be desired, and by means 
of this definiteness of purpose on the part of 
the mother, the time will come, when, if 
they are put into a child's hands and he is 
told to play with them, he will be able to 
amuse himself in any one of the delightful 
ways which he has been taught, and he will 



48 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

also invent new combinations of form and 
number. 

For convenience I mark off this work into 
lessons or steps. 
1 . From uncolored beads, string all spheres. 



2. 


II (( < 


( <( 


" cubes. 


3. 


i< (( i 


<( 


" cylinders. 


4. 


* colored " 




" red beads 


5. 


(1 (1 ( 


(< 


'♦ blue *• 


6. 


i( <( ( 


<< 


•' yellow" 


7. - 


( (< a 


i 1 


• ' orange * ' 


8. 


1 (< (< 


(( 


** green ** 


9. 


( <( 1 


<< 


" purple " 



10. Number lessons in uncolored beads as : One 

sphere, one cube, one cylinder. 

11. Two spheres, two cubes, two cylinders, etc. 

12. String colored beads in the order of the spec- 

trum. 

13. Number lessons ad infinitmn in combinations 

of the colored beads. 

14. Invent combinations in uncolored beads. 

15. " " " colored 

For stringing purposes nothing is better 
than strong shoestrings. When a string of 
beads is finished, or a lesson completed, it 
may be worn as a decoration, but must be 
saved until evening to be shown and ex- 
plained to papa. After a definite lesson of 



Suggestions frorti the Kindergarten Gifts. 49 

this sort is completed in the kindergarten 
the children are allowed to do as they please 
with a quantity of the material for a while. 
Some do the work of the lesson over again, 
some invent new combinations, some string 
the beads in no apparent order but with 
great apparent pleasure. That free play 
should follow definite work with almost 
all material is a safe rule for the nursery as 
well as the kindergarten. In this particular 
case if the free-play string shows any sort of 
order or definiteness it too should be saved 
until evening and papa informed that some- 
body's busy fingers did that one all alone. 

With burnt matches companies of gay 
soldiers can be made with these beads by 
running the match through the holes in a 
cube, cylinder and sphere successively, and 
standing the result upright on the cube end. 
Splendid processions can be formed, and if 
the companies are arranged m colors the 
result is very pleasing. These same soldiers, 
if transformed by the imagination into 
school or kindergarten children, will make 
good playthings, as with blocks the school- 



50 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

house can be built and a whole educational 
scheme dramatized. I have seen kinder- 
garten pupils place these bead children on a 
circle and go through their whole list of 
games, songs and marches with them. If 
the real kindergarten, the real school or the 
real home is represented, certain bead struc- 
tures representing certain real persons, the 
play becomes even more delightful to the 
children. 

On longer sticks the beads become logs, 
beams and other objects, and they can also 
be made to reproduce in miniature the forms 
made with the larger blocks. A farm, a 
house, a water-wheel and mill, or in fact 
any desired set of objects, can be con- 
structed with these little playthings. If 
when giving them in this way the mother is 
wise enough to seize on the set of circum- 
stances most prominent in the child's mind, 
a recent visit, a prospective excursion, the 
big department store, or the coming Thanks- 
giving celebration, she will discover new 
possibilities both in her child and the 
material. 



Suggestions from the Kindergarten Gifts. 51 

One other game with these beads which 
was played successfully in a kindergarten 
may be suggestive of other similar ones. 
The red spheres were sorted out and trans- 
formed into strawberries, for it was June. 
The room became a meadow and after one 
child had hidden the beads the others took 
their baskets and went strawberrying, hav- 
ing a supper afterwards of the berries 
brought home. This pretending play — pre- 
tending to set the table, eat, drink and clear 
away, or do anything else of the sort, has 
an unfailing charm at any time if entered 
into by mother or teacher with any sort of 
dramatic zest. Nothing will sooner bring 
soul into a child's eyes and sunshine into 
his face. If you doubt this try it and see, 
not forgetting the zest. 

Old fashioned glass beads make good 
presents for small convalescents and good 
playthings at any time, if kept out of sight 
and produced only on occasion. 

If old visiting cards are cut into exact 
squares and triangles the children will be 
glad to amuse themselves laying forms with 



52 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

them. They should be cut on a two-inch 
scale and it will be well to limit the quantity 
used at times, taxing the ingenuity of the 
child by stimulating him to do what he can 
with four, six, eight or twelve cards. Side- 
walks, streets, car-tracks, enclosed spaces, 
steps and borders can be laid on the nursery 
floor; chairs, tables, houses, barns, castles 
and stars can be represented, and best of all, 
beauty forms and geometrical designs will 
suggest themselves, or can be copied from 
patterns in wall paper, carpets, oil-cloths and 
other articles. Give the squares first and 
lead the child to do what he can with them, 
then add the different triangles, the right 
isosceles, equilateral, obtuse isosceles, and 
right scalene in turn, and finally let combi- 
nations be made of two or more forms. Any 
of the forms or figures laid can be easily 
copied on paper or blackboard, and both 
tablets and the drawings of them can be 
colored. When the forms are to be drawn 
it would be well if the child had a good 
blank book in which to preserve his efforts, 
for the same amount of care will not be put 



Suggestions from the Kindergarten Gifts. 53 

on a slip of paper which will probably be 
thrown away, as on the leaf of the drawing 
book which is to be kept always, and which 
can be shown to papa any night when a new 
picture is added. 

In giving the child this plaything, help 
him from his indefinite to definite action 
and work. 

A few cedar blocks, such as are used in 
paving streets, split up into sticks about 
eight inches long and half an inch thick, 
will furnish a new plaything. Pine sticks 
will do of course, but the cedar block lends 
itself so readily to this kind of division and 
is so fragrant that it is to be preferred. The 
bulk of this material, for the sticks should 
fill a good-sized basket, pleases the child; 
for psychologists tell us that the large 
muscles develop first, and that large play- 
things best meet nature's demands in the 
early years. With these sticks the children 
can, in a crude way, outline forms and make 
pictures which express their thoughts. Here 
again streets and railroad tracks suggest 
themselves. The simple mathematical forms, 



54 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

squares, oblongs, triangles, trapeziums, 
trapezoids, pentagons, hexagons, octagons 
and the like give a pleasure to children which 
must be experienced to be realized. They 
are so easily changed into life and beaut}^ 
forms by the addition of other sticks, and 
are so readily converted by repetition into 
border patterns, that their possibilities seem 
almost endless. Simple houses of the old 
corn-cob style can be built, the zigzag Vir- 
ginian rail fence can be exactly reproduced, 
and many other forms outlined or copied. 
Among these are hou.ses, bird-houses, 
churches, fences, ladders, doors, windows, 
furniture, clocks, stars, wheels, boats, cars, 
and almost any other desired objects. The 
thoughts filling the child's mind, whether 
they be of the coming Christmas, the new 
baby or the home kitchen, can be expressed 
with this material, and a child will play in 
this quiet way a long time making some- 
thing for mamma to guess. 

** Oh, go play with your sticks ! " may 
not always bring about the desired result, 
but, ' ' Oh, Helen, let us make the big 



Suggestions front the Kindergarten Gifts. 55 

Thanksgiving table at grandma's!" will 
probably accomplish something. If you add, 
' * Can you make chairs for them all ? Make 
the church where grandpa goes ! Now try 
the stove where they will cook the turkey ! 
Make what you want for Christmas and see 
if I can guess what you make." In all 
probability Helen will be happily occupied 
for a long time, especially if she copies into 
her drawing book the forms she has laid. 

These large sticks keep their places so 
well when laid, and so adapt themselves to 
the floor where children play so much, that 
they have peculiar advantages for a child's 
first attempt at sticklaying. Later the slats, 
splints and kindergarten sticks may replace 
them. 

Outlining with seeds of different sorts will 
give pleasure to many children under right 
conditions, these conditions being sometimes 
participation, at all times sympathy, and the 
necessary thought stimulus; that is, that 
the work be the expression of thought that 
interests. Groups of objects or single forms 
carefully laid and preserved for someone's 



56 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

pleasure, will keep restless fingers busy on 
many a rainy afternoon, and the collecting 
and sorting of various seeds, such as apple 
seeds, melon seeds, sunflower seeds, corn, 
beans, lentils and coflfee, is a part of the 
work. A seed box can be set up in the Fall, 
or at any other time of the year, into which 
seeds can be dropped against the rainy days 
when the accumulation can be sorted and 
used. 

With blocks, as with seeds and sticks, to 
suggest representations of those objects or 
subjects which at the time are most engag- 
ing the child's attention, is often to oil the 
mainspring of action. It must be borne in 
mind constantly while reading these direc- 
tions that all the times when a child will 
happily and rightfully employ himself are 
clear gain, and these suggestions are to be 
used chiefly when his resources are ex- 
hausted. 

Of course with their blocks children will 
play by themselves for long periods of time, 
but when the time comes when they say, 
" We don't know what to build," it is well 



Suggestions from the Kindergarten Gifts, hi 

to have a few ideas to offer, as for instance, 
a suggestion to build a big barn with a large 
door, at the farther end of the room, and roll 
balls, which for the time being become 
horses or cows, into it. Strongly built bird- 
houses into which bits of paper rolled into 
balls for flying birds can be thrown, high 
towers against which balls can be rolled, are 
all practicabilities. The tower game is a 
sort of nursery ninepins, and the one who 
succeeds in overturning the structure has 
the privilege of inventing a new one. A 
telephone game with blocks for poles and 
strings for wires is another suggestion. A 
farm enclosed with blocks, elaborated with 
other materials and toys, and kept for the 
friends who are to be invited in to see it; 
churches, castles, boats and factories; 
models of the houses in which real people 
live; foundations laid as real foundations are 
with gum tragacanth paste for mortar, and 
stories and experiences worked out are 
among the many things which can be done 
with blocks. If, for instance, the Three 
Bears is the last tale heard or the one most 



58 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

prominent in the child's mind, the blocks 
can be made to tell- the story over again to 
papa or some one else. The little house, 
the three beds, the three chairs, the bowls, 
stove and table, can be built and placed in 
a safe spot. Such careful preservation of 
work will go a long way toward correcting 
destructive tendencies. Indeed it is not to 
be wondered at that children are careless 
and destructive when we reflect how often a 
whole afternoon's efibrt is left in fragments 
on the floor, consigned to the flames or 
buried in the waste basket. 

For nursery use kindergartners recom- 
mend cubical blocks two inches square, some 
of which should be divided into triangular 
prisms. Oblong blocks 4x2x1 should form 
another set. The use of these need not pre- 
clude the use of others already in possession, 
for any or all of these suggestions can be 
carried out with whatever blocks are on 
hand, but if one is buying new blocks, and 
can have this particular kind made by a car- 
penter, the child himself can have the pleas- 
ure of pasting pictures on them, which will 



Suggestions from the Kindergarten Gifts. 59 

be infinitely better than buying for him those 
blocks which already have pictures on their 
several sides; and if he does not care to do 
this pasting there is no harm done, as the 
plain wooden blocks yield the most satisfac- 
tory architectural results anyway. 

For the yard, warm basement, or attic 
there can be no better plaything than 
a load or part of a load of cedar paving 
blocks. With these all sorts of houses, 
stores, boats and forts, large enough to get 
into bodily, can be built. Schools, churches, 
kindergartens and railroad trains can be 
furnished with them, and a thousand other 
uses such as would never occur to the adult 
mind will be discovered for these fascin- 
atingly big cylinders. No one who has 
watched the children on a street which was 
being paved with these blocks will doubt 
this. The objection urged to such a play- 
thing as this will doubtless be that the chil- 
dren would play with them delightedly 
for a little while and then tire of them. 
This is true of not only cedar blocks, but 
of many other toys, such as bicycles, 



60 Home Occupations for Little Children^ 

wagons, rocking horses and even ponies. 
It is not child nature to concentrate very 
long on any one thing, however much it 
delights at first. We overlook this fact when 
it touches the inexpensive dolls, tin dishes, 
jumping frogs, and the like, but notice it at 
once when the Bagatelle Board is deserted 
for the popgun, and the big Baby House 
left desolate because of a new jumping rope. 
But just as surely as a child's natural fickle- 
ness leads him to desert one plaything for 
another, just so surely will it lead him back 
to it again and again, and the more adjust- 
able, transformable and capable of change a 
plaything is the oftener will childish affec- 
tions revisit it. 




fm 



(Tbapter ID. 

SUGGESTIONS FROM THE KINDER- 
GARTEN OCCUPATIONS. 

HE weaving of paper mats is a 
favorite occupation in the kin- 
dergarten, and older children 
are usually very fond of the 
work. This is noticeable when they visit 
the kindergarten, especially if they have 
passed through its course of instruction. To 
these children much of the kindergarten ma- 
terial can be given directly, for they will 
know how to use it, and they have at home 
the time and scope for invention with it 
which the kindergartner was perhaps unable 
to give. 

With younger children and those who 
have not been in the kindergarten it will be 
necessary for the mother to keep the store of 
mats, strips and needles to herself, allowing 
the children to weave only on occasion or 

61 



62 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

for a definite purpose. If the materials are 
where a child can get them at will, and if he 
is allowed freedom to begin several mats and 
finish none, the weaving will neither interest 
nor attract him very long, but given out as 
a thing to be valued and really used it may 
be a source of both pleasure and profit. The 
mothers who do not know what this weav- 
ing material is can easily learn at the kin- 
dergarten supply stores, where dealers will 
be glad to show them just how the work is 
done, and to furnish them with the catalogue 
containing patterns. Perhaps an easier way 
will be to get some kindergarten friend to 
outline the necessary steps, and give what 
other technical instruction is desired. 

Most mothers of to-day, when they were 
children themselves, beguiled some of their 
leisure hours weaving small slats, which 
were split up from strawberry boxes, into 
screens, fans and the like. This should not 
become a lost art, and when strawberry 
boxes are not at hand, slats of all sizes and 
colors can be bought. In summer wide flags 
and other rushes can be braided into mats 



Suggestions from Kindergarten Occupations. 63 

after the manner of our remoter ancestors. 
Educators tells us that the child develops 
as did the race, and, therefore, that the oc- 
cupations of primitive man, the hunting, 
building of shelters, weaving and modeling, 
especially attract children. 

The weaving of wide strips of colored 
cloth is easily accomplished with the fingers, 
and the result can be transformed into vari- 
ous useful articles, such as iron-holders and 
pads for handling hot stove-lifters and blow- 
ers. Several mothers have told me that the 
weaving of ribbon or braid in and out the 
holes of a cane-seated chair, by means of a 
tape needle, is an amusement which often 
lasts for long periods of time. One little girl 
who tried this and enjoyed it very much 
subsequently offered to re-seat an old chair. 
The bottomless chair, strong cloth strips, 
tacks and hammer were given her, and the 
result was lots of fun for the small artisan, 
even if the chair was not altogether safe 
after she had finished it. 

Quite the most remarkable bit of weaving 
by children, which has come to my knowl- 



64 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

edge, was done by some small boys in whose 
play-room a painter's ladder was placed 
diagonally from ceiling to floor, in such a 
way that each end was firmly held. Through 
this fascinating plaything the boys were 
wont to weave themselves in their moments 
of recreation. This was only one of the 
many delightful things that could be done 
with the ladder, and it long remained a favor- 
ite among the gymnastic appliances which 
adorned this particular play spot. 

Sand is always a favorite plaything in- 
doors and out, but how to provide it as an 
indoor plaything is something of a problem. 
A large pan with deep sides will hold enough 
sand for one child to play in satisfactorily, 
but where there is room enough the sand 
table of the kindergarten may become a part 
of the nursery or play-room furnishing if 
desired. This table is variously constructed, 
being usually an adaptation of some table or 
bench already in possession. In my own 
case it is the plainest kind of a wash-bench, 
whose sides were fenced in by the janitor. 
Near the table hangs a dust-pan and brush, 



Suggestions from Kindergarten Occupations. 65 

and as it is almost impossible for the children 
to play without spilling some sand over the 
edge, it has become a part of the play to 
sweep up. This has become such a matter 
of course that no one thinks anything about 
it, and it seems to answer the objection sure 
to be raised against sand in the house. 

At first the child is contented to play in 
the sand by himself, building it into houses 
and fences, leveling them, patting the sand 
down, and doing other things of a similar 
nature. As long as he will so employ him- 
self, of course no assistance in the way of 
suggestion is necessary, but when he reaches 
his limitations a very little help will often 
put a whole new set of operations in train. 
The addition of a ruler or flattened stick 
with which round houses can be shaped into 
square ones, and surfaces smoothed or trim- 
med down, will set the ball rolling' again. 
Spheres, cubes, cylinders and other objects 
with which impressions can be made i-n the 
damp sand, should be given when the occa- 
sion calls for them. All sorts of little cups 
and dishes from which sand cakes can be 



66 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

turned will come into play, and a sand pie 
carefully made in a tin-plate or old china 
saucer, is not a thing to be despised with its 
ornamented crust. When I was a child I 
remember investing my pennies for a long 
time in fascinating little tin-dishes shaped 
like hearts, stars and other beautiful things, 
and such dishes are still on sale. 

When the sand is dry a set of homeo- 
pathic medicine bottles will prove a treasure. 
Indeed, bottles by themselves are not alto- 
gether undesirable playthings, as children 
usually are fond of them and make up many 
interesting plays with them. One little 
child who goes to the kindergarten was de- 
lighted to set up a kindergarten of his own 
with empty bottles for pupils, in which his 
children sang, marched and played as hap- 
pily afternoons as he did mornings. This 
sort of representation of their own lives ap- 
peals very strongly to most little children, 
and spools, clothes-pins, flowers, marbles, 
pins and other objects easily serve their pur- 
pose. They especially delight to represent 
children collectively, as a school, kindergar- 



Suggestions front Kindergarten Occupations. 67 

ten, party or excursion. Pins and a pin- 
cushion will amuse a baby for a long 
time, where the pins are made to answer 
for people, animals and objects that he 
knows. 

Returning to the sand, some of the more 
elaborate plays of children with this plastic 
material take the form of farms, gardens, 
parks, fairy-lands, and geographical forma- 
tions. Houses, walks, fences and yards are 
made, trees and flowers planted, lakes and 
rivers excavated, and roads laid out. Rep- 
resentations of particular localities, the 
streets of a town, country roads, hills of a 
definite section, and the surroundings of any 
particular spot can be made in a sand pan. 
Of course the sand pile in the yard, the real 
lake shore, sea beach, or river bank, is pref- 
erable to a pan or table indoors, but as in 
our latitude we are housed more or less for 
eight months of the year the sand-pan has 
its place. 

The clay sold at art stores and by kinder- 
garten supply dealers can be used to advan- 
tage at home if the kindergarten idea of us- 



68 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

ing it as a means of expression is held by the 
mother. The kindergartner usually has 
some definite object in her mind towards 
which the children are glad to work with 
her. That object is something which she 
knows is a part of that inner life which they 
are always trying to express in action. With 
this definite work she gives them plenty of 
time and opportunity to work out anything 
they wish — to do what they please with the 
clay. At home the mother knows what is 
most predominant in her child's thought at 
any particular time, and she can help him to 
express this very easily with clay by choos- 
ing to make with him, or have him make, 
some object which stands in close relation 
to it. One great incentive to careful work 
with clay is a place in which the work can 
be kept, comparisons made and improvement 
noted. So, too, is an aim in working, a gift 
to be made, a surprise prepared, a good- 
natured joke perpeti'ated, or a souvenir pre- 
sented. 

Some of the objects to which the clay most 
readily adapts itself are firuit, birds, nests, 



Suggestions from Kindergarten Occupations. 69 

nuts, pods, vegetables, houses, boxes^ 
trunks, animals, sets of dishes, kitchen and 
other utensils, fish, turtles, frogs, mice, etc. 
Whole sets of objects can be made with the 
ball, the half ball, the oblate spheroid, the 
prolate spheroid, cube, cylinder, parallel- 
epipeds, prisms and other forms for bases. 

A bird can be made with five balls, one 
large and four small ones. The large one 
becomes a body, one small one a head on 
which a beak is readily formed by pinching 
the clay into the required shape, two small 
balls are flattened for wings, and the last 
ball is similarly treated for a tail. 

Another pleasant occupation is the mak- 
ing of a leaf plaque in repousse work. A ball 
is made and flattened into a disc about a 
quarter of an inch thick. Upon this, rough 
side down, is laid a leaf. All the exposed 
surface is gently pricked with a wooden 
toothpick, after which the leaf is taken away, 
its clear impression remaining in the midst 
of the rough surface. 

Impressions made in the clay with wooden 
blocks of various forms is commended by art 



70 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

teachers as suitable work for little children. 
These impressions can be so placed as to 
form borders and patterns. 

At Thanksgiving time in some kindergar- 
tens cabins are built of clay logs, and often 
a number of children working together pro- 
duce the articles which go to make up a 
shoe shop, bakery, blacksmith's shop, or 
which represent any other industry. 

Try the experiment some time of letting 
the child tell the story of the day, his walk, 
a ride or any other experience, with the 
clay, with the direct object of making papa 
read the story when he comes home at night. 

In the home use of all these materials each 
mother will use her own discretion as to 
whether the child is to have free access to 
them at all times, whether they are to be 
used at stated times, or whether they are to 
be brought out only on occasion. Each will 
know which way will best suit her children, 
their environment and her own circum- 
stances. 

A party of older children, and even grown- 
up people, can have a most amusing evening 



Suggestions from Kindergarten Occupations, 71 



with the clay. Give to each a piece of suit- 
able size and require some very familiar ob- 
ject, a head and face, a cow, a horse, a man 
or anything equally well known, to be made 
in a specified number of minutes and give a 
prize for the one voted best. Modehng the 
human head and face, which seems the easi- 
est and most familiar, generally produces 
the most amusing results in a party of ama- 
teur sculptors. 




Cbaptet m. 

WITH NEEDI^K AND THREAD. 

MONG the occupations given by 
Froebel to his pupils for use in 
the kindergarten was a carefully 
elaborated school of pricking, 




beginning with straight lines and running 
through their various combinations, to which 
were added diagonals and their combinations, 
curves and their combinations, all of which 
were to lead to the invention of designs in 
lines and curves. This school of work has 
been largely discarded by the training classes 
on account of the straining of eyes and pre- 
mature use of smaller muscles, as well as 
for other psychological reasons. In few, if 
any, of the kindergartens of to-day will one 
find the school of pricking in use, but the 
occasional pricking of simple designs and 
representations of objects is still used to the 
delight of the older children. They love to 

72 



With Needle and Thread. 73 

do this sort of work, and in a good light and 
for a short time can do it without injury.^ 

In many homes the children at times ask 
for, or are given, a piece of paper or cardboard 
on which a picture is drawn for them to prick, 
and carrying out the kindergarten idea of 
making the work the expression of an occa- 
sion or of the child's thought, it can bring 
added pleasure to the satisfaction already 
found in the more primitive method. Any 
stationer will, for a small sum, cut cards of 
bristol board or manila paper of any desired 
dimension, and a store of these should be 
added to the nursery playthings. If econ- 
omy demands it old visiting cards, adver- 
tisements and invitations may be utilized. 

A pricking cushion can be easily made of 
two or three thicknesses of strong cloth, and 
a hat-pin or belt-pin will do for a needle, 
although the regular needle with its wooden 
handle, which is used in the kindergarten, 
is perhaps more comfortable to manipulate. 

Chief among the subjects for pricking 
cards are the objects of interest surrounding 
the child at any particular time. Other 



74 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

simple objects especially well adapted to this 
particular kind of representation are fruits, 
vegetables, flowers, clocks, birds, animals, 
leaves, pods, tools, implements, utensils, 
fish, turtles, butterflies, stars and moon 
phases. Pretty borders around the edges 
of these pricked pictures add much to the 
effect as well as to the time required in pro- 
ducing it. 

As to the difiiculty in supplying the neces- 
sary designs, there are many ways of getting 
around one's inability to draw. Nearly 
everybody has at least one friend who can 
and will draw a picture if asked to do so; 
pattern objects can be cut out and used for 
tracing, and last, but not least, our own 
crude drawings do not look to the children 
as they do to us. Picture cards especially 
prepared for this occupation are sold by 
dealers in kindergarten supplies, and from 
their catalogues selections can be made in 
accordance with individual desires and cir- 
cumstances. 

These pricked cards can be made into 
transparencies to be hung in windows, calen- 



With Needle and Thread. 75 

dars, pin-trays, letter-pockets, covers for 
needle-books, and many other things. They 
can also be pasted into a scrap-book for 
preservation. This scrap-book should be a 
part of the nursery outfit in order that work 
well done of many sorts may be kept. 
When filled, it will be a treasure always in 
the mother's eyes, a delight to the child 
himself as he grows older, perhaps a source 
of child-study data, and often a valued gift 
to some loved member of the family or dis- 
tant friend. 

It seems hardly necessary to add that 
the right side of a finished pricked picture 
is the rough side, and for this reason while 
children at home and in school often prick 
names, words, and sentences, such cards do 
not present a very satisfactory appearance 
when finished, as on the rough side the 
writing is reversed and the smooth side 
shows the pencil marks. Kinder gartners 
do not recommend pricking for children 
under five years of age, but from that time 
on experience has shown them that when 
used wisely nature has no objections to it. 



76 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

In nearly all homes little girls sew patch- 
work and dolls' clothes, and outline simple 
designs in fancy work. To this is often 
added the old-fashioned knitting on four 
pins and a spool, which delighted their elders* 
younger days.' Instead of pins, use smooth, 
slender nails, and drive them in so that 
they are a little over half an inch high. Odds 
and ends of worsted please the children 
best, as they enjoy the frequent change of 
color. Shaded worsteds, I remember, we 
especially enjoyed, and a little shop where 
penny skeins could be purchased stands out 
clearly among my mental images. 

This spool-work, when finished, can be 
made into reins for playing horse, as well as 
into mats and holders. 

The ' ' wonder ball ' * of modern times is 
one of the best gifts to a child old enough 
to do this knitting. A number of inexpen- 
sive trifles are rolled into the ball of worsted 
which is to be knit, and as the knitter works 
his industry is rewarded by the frequent 
dropping out of these concealed treasures. 
Sewing on real clothes for a definite object 



With Needle and Thread. 77 

appeals more to a child than the old-fashioned 
''stent," given merely to teach sewing. 
To work on a gift for a friend, a garment for 
a poorer child, or something which is to be 
really used in the house, is not the task that 
sewing for its own sake is apt to become. 

In the kindergarten boys as well as girls 
like to sew, and there is no reason why a 
boy should ever be deprived of this pleasure. 
It certainly is no disadvantage to any man 
to know how to sew on a button or do a 
bit of mending, and it certainly is a great 
advantage to any boy in this way to learn 
self-reliance, helpfulness and consideration. 
I know a family of four children, two boys 
and two girls, where each does his own 
mending and cares for his own room. The 
fact that soldiers, sailors, hunters and col- 
lege men must often do their own mending 
appeals strongly to the average small boy, 
who, I have come to believe, is often really 
fond of this particular kind of work. I 
know one little lad of six who has been very 
anxious to learn to knit on real knitting 
needles ever since he learned that in Scot- 



78 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

land many a man knows how to * * click the 
pricks, ' ' for which bit of information we are 
indebted to Miss Alcott. 

The kindergarten sewing is a good begin- 
ning for later and more elaborate efforts. 
A three-year-old can begin in this way, and 
it will continue to interest him until he is 
ten or more. There is, as in the pricking, 
a regular school of work, or rather, many 
schools more or less elaborated, consisting of 
lines, angles, curves and their combinations, 
leading to the invention of designs. Any 
mother can possess herself of one of these 
schools of work through a kindergarten 
friend, should she desire to do so, and 
for children of seven years and over she 
could use it to great advantage, but for 
home use for younger children the picture 
sewing will perhaps be the most desirable 
and available. 

A store of Bristol board or stiff manila 
cards, about 6x8 inches, and a little inge- 
nuity, will bring many a pleasant hour into 
the nursery. If it is practicable to paint the 
pictures sewed in out-ine, stiff water-color 



With Needle and Thread. 79 



paper should be procured for such work. 
Nothing is better for the baby's first sew- 
ing lessons than the simple representations 
of the six kindergarten balls of red, blue, 
yellow, orange, green and purple. In our 
own kindergarten we have used in place of 
or sometimes after this a series consisting of 
a red apple, blue ball, yellow lemon, orange, 
green pear and purple plum. Carrying out 
the idea a little further, when it seems 
necessary, we have added a red tomato, 
yellow squash, green cucumber, orange 
pumpkin and purple ^gg plant. In this 
work the objects should be as large as life 
size when practicable; the needle, coarse, 
and the stitches, long. 

The list of objects given for the pricked 
pictures is equally good for sewing, and to 
these should be added, as in other cases, the 
objects occupying the child's thought at the 
time, as, for instance, an outlined mitten 
just before it is time to put on winter cloth- 
ing; for it is then, as I well remember, that 
a child's mind is full of anticipatory visions 
of sleds, skates, snow-storms and winter 



80 Home Occupations for Little Child rot. 

sports generally, all of which ideas he 
should be helped to express in various ways, 
of which sewing is one. As further in- 
stances, a stocking at Christmas time, a big 
fire-cracker before the Fourth of July, a 
trunk when a journey is contemplated, are 
suggested. 

In any kindergarten supply catalogue a 
large number of illustrations of picture-sew- 
ing cards will be found. These may be 
bought, copied, or used suggestively when 
new material is needed. 

This work must be used in some way if 
the children are to retain their interest in it 
and to have a continued incentive to further 
effort. It is well early in the year to set up 
a "Christmas box," to which all good work 
may be consigned to await the time when, 
with a very little additional labor, each piece 
may be transformed into a gift. The sug- 
gestions for the disposition of pricking-cards 
are equally applicable to the sewing-cards. 
All through the year birthday and other 
gifts for friends and relatives will furnish an 
output for these home industries, and the 



With Needle and Thread. 81 

scrap-book is always at hand. There should 
never, from the child's point of view, be 
any work done just for the sake of doing it, 
and in a wisely administered nursery gov- 
ernment there will be no odds and ends of 
work lying about as disregarded rubbish, 
neither will there be any careless or unfin- 
ished work. 




Cbapter IDiriF* 

WITH PASTE AND SCISSORS- 




OR years we have been in the 
habit of saying to the children 
in our homes, ''Now run away 
and play!" taking it for granted 
that their resources and inventive powers 
are inexhaustible. We have often left out 
of account the lively little mind which de- 
manded scope for activity as well as the 
body, thinking it all sufficient if the children 
were physically active. We have forgotten, 
or we never knew, that real play must have 
thought for its vitalizing force. By helping 
the children so to vitalize their play we give 
them additional power as well as additional 
pleasure. For instance, children like to cut 
out pictures — let us give them a reason for 
cutting them out! They like to cut objects 
out of paper free-hand — let us help them to 
select and classify these objects, and to do 

82 



U'^il/i Paste and Scissors. 83 

something with them, something which 
shall stimulate to further effort! They like 
to paste — but "what shall I paste?" they 
say. Sometimes, as has been said, we must 
join in this play -work ourselves; at other 
times a suggestion, a starting point, a 
thought will be sufficient to keep the chil- 
dren busy for a long time. 

For the work to be discussed in this chap- 
ter blunt pointed scissors, not too small, pa- 
per and paste, are the essentials. The paper 
is of various kinds — newspaper, wrapping 
paper, colored paper, paper saved from pack- 
ages, kindergarten folding paper, and for 
great occasions, sheets of gold and silver 
paper. 

The best and the cheapest paste for family 
use is made of gum tragacanth and water. 
Its advantages over other pastes are many. 
Flour and water paste is hard on carpets, 
mucilage is too sticky and the various 
library pastes, snow flake pastes and the like, 
while excellent for special purposes, are ex- 
pensive, apt to dry up, and usually leave a 
flake or crust wherever a particle is dropped. 



84 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

The gum tragacanth can be bought in bulk 
at drug stores and twenty-five cents* worth 
will last for months. Half a dozen pieces 
dropped into a cup or bottle of water over 
night will make a paste which is not sticky 
on the fingers, which leaves no spots on 
clothes or carpets, and which can be kept so 
thick that it will not run when its receptacle 
is overturned. It is best to make a small 
quantity every two weeks or so, as it spoils 
if kept too long. The thinnest of the kin- 
dergarten slats make good paste brushes, as 
they are so inexpensive that the losing of 
one is a small matter, and, as we all know, 
brushes will get themselves lost frequently. 
From the advertising leaves of our num- 
berless magazines, illustrated papers, cir- 
culars, advertisements and old magazines 
the children can cut out pictures by the 
bushel, but they must have an object for 
cutting, which shall stimulate them not only 
to cut neatly, but to keep on cutting. Try 
providing a large and attractive looking box 
with a picture and the inscription ' 'For cut- 
out pictures ^'^ on its cover. Explain to your 



With Paste and Scissors, 85 

small folks that all neatly cut-out pictures 
are to go into it, and that when you have 
time and there are enough pictures you and 
they will make a good use of the contents. 
Say that you need a great many pictures, 
and make your purpose a mystery, or tell 
the whole story as you see fit. When a suf- 
ficent quantity of pictures has accumulated 
take time to look them over with the chil- 
dren, if they cannot do it alone, and sort 
them into all kinds of groups — little boy pic- 
tures, little girl pictures, work pictures, play 
pictures, cat pictures, dog pictures, any one 
kind of animal pictures, indoor pictures, 
outdoor pictures, summer pictures, winter 
pictures, farm pictures, city pictures, coun- 
try pictures, baby pictures, water pictures, 
and any others you may need or want. 
From these make up classified scrap-books, 
animal books, children books, outdoor books, 
indoor books, and so on. Make the scrap- 
books of cambric or strong wrapping paper, 
label them conspicuously on the outside, and 
then let them be presented to baby relations 
and neighbors, poor children who have few 



86 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

or no picture books, free kindergartens and 
hospital wards. Do not make these presen- 
tations yourself, but let the children do it, 
that they may have the pleasure of seeing 
the outcome of their labors. 

Cut out the tops and bottoms of large 
pasteboard boxes, hang them up by a cord 
or ribbon, let the children invent some kind 
of a pretty border to go around the edges, 
and on them mount groups of classified pic- 
tures. These charts make good gifts for 
sick-rooms, where they can be hung in 
sight of the bed or couch. They should be 
filled on both sides. In cutting out some 
pictures it is better to cut out the object or 
objects instead of preserving the whole 
picture. Animals cut out in this way can 
be made to prowl over a chart in a most 
interesting fashion. 

lyarge pictures can be pasted on the tops 
or bottoms of boxes of suitable size and 
then cut up into puzzles for little invalids. 
The colored art supplements which our 
newspapers lavish upon us are good for 
this purpose. 



With Paste and Scissors. 87 



Among the kindergarten supplies are 
envelopes filled with paper circles, squares 
and triangles which may become home 
treasures if rightly used. A pasting-book 
can be improvised or bought for five cents. 
In this the child can make a red page, a 
blue page, and yellow, orange, green and 
purple pages, by neatly pasting one square or 
circle in each alternate squared space, or by 
arranging a number of them in any other 
desired and orderly fashion. On subsequent 
pages he can invent borders and designs, 
keeping always in mind that symmetry, 
proportion and regularity are necessary to 
good results. I^et him lay his border or 
design before beginning to paste it, and let 
all suggestions and corrections be made 
then. 

By cutting colored paper into short strips, 
material for kindergarten chains can be 
made at home. These the children will of 
their own accord paste by the yard, but 
they yield much more profit and pleasure if 
pasted with some regard to color and num- 
ber, two red and two blue, three yellow and 



88 Home Occupations for Little Children. 



three orange, and so on. Chains of six col- 
ors put together in the order of the colors of 
the spectrum are very pleasing, and the 
variety of big chains, little chains, middle- 
sized chains, and chains whose links are of 
different sizes will afford scope and variety 
to the work. These chains have the best 
excuse for being made when the decoration 
of nursery, sitting room or piazza for some 
great occasion is in order. They also make 
fine military trappings for small soldiers. 

If children can be led up to any degree of 
skill in free-hand cutting an endless vista 
will open before them. We are all familiar 
with those prodigies whose work is exhib- 
ited at fairs and expositions, but between 
this and the baby's first crude cutting of 
scraps there is every degree of proficiency. 
I call to mind one little boy of five or six 
whose scissors produced most remarkable 
bugs and insects, and whose sister at about 
the same age cut very good heads of ani- 
mals. Another child in the same family 
invented sets of dishes, while another ran 
entirely to dolls. A family of boys cut out 



With Paste and Scissors. 89 

on one occasion an entire circus procession, 
wliicli was the admiration of several genera- 
tions. The possibihties of free-hand cutting 
are great, but it must be borne in mind that 
crude beginnings lead up to excellent 
results, and that the day of small things 
must not be despised. It is something to 
know how to handle scissors at all ; it is an 
advance to slit up any oblong piece of paper 
and call it a "pair of pants," as one three- 
year-old used to do. To lead children to 
take pleasure in this occupation if they do 
not, as we say, ''take to it naturally;" that 
is, indulge in it freely of their own accord, 
it is necessary to appreciate their efforts, to 
show them how they can improve, and to 
give them an object for cutting. They 
will very often cut contentedly for long 
periods of time just for the sake of cutting, 
but there are also times when with an ob- 
ject in view their scissors will furnish pleas- 
ure and occupation, when without it they 
would not. 

A blank book, however cheap, or one 
simply home-made, labeled ''Cuttings,'" in 



90 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

which all worthy of preservation, either 
because of the earnest effort which went 
into its making or because of a remote 
resemblance to the thing copied, can be 
kept and will furnish this object. It may 
for a time be necessary to write the name 
of the cutting underneath it for the enlight- 
enment of interested beholders, but this to 
the child is an addition to rather than a de- 
traction from his handiwork. 

Charts can also be made of these cuttings, 
and the grouping of them into classes or 
sets gives a definiteness to the thought be- 
hind the results which will lead to still bet- 
ter performances. I have seen such charts 
filled with cut-out fruits, leaves and flowers, 
sets of dishes, tools, implements, and objects 
illustrating stories told or read. Houses for 
humans, birds, pigeons and dogs; barns, 
corn-cribs, fences, ladders, flags, moons, 
stars, boats, animals and people are some 
of the things which cut out well. 

A clothes-line of string can be filled with 
the family garments hung out to dry, for 
which interesting industry it will be neces- 



With Paste and Scissors. 91 

sary to invent a clothes-pin of some sort. An 
oblong bit of cardboard with a slit in 'A is 
the simplest yet on record. 

One group of children played shoe-store 
for days, first making purses of folded 
paper, and then cutting out money. They 
cut out shoes of every imaginable shape and 
size and arranged them for the retail trade, 
which flourished apace, for when their 
money v/as spent these fortunate purchasers 
had only to make more. 

Any kind of a shop could be stocked in 
this way, and there never yet was a child 
who did not like to play store. The com- 
mon pin-vv'heel is familiar to every one. I 
have a recollection, somewhat hazy, of what 
seemed to me a most impressive and beauti- 
ful sight known as a ''pin- wheel store." 
There were in it pin-wheels of every size 
and color, and crossed sticks on which two 
or more pin- wheels were fastened. These 
were sold for pins by some older children 
to us younger ones. 

The making of large paper flags, shields, 
pennons, knightly banners and signals has 



92 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

kept many a small boy happy indoors when 
he could not go out. Webster's unabridged 
dictionary contains numbers of flags and 
signals which may be learned and copied to 
good advantage. One little lad in whose 
kindergarten the knights were known and 
loved, beguiled the tedious hours of a 
week's illness by making banners. He not 
only cut out and mounted the banners on 
sticks, but invented endless objects and de- 
vices which he pasted upon them. He 
branched out from these to a George Wash- 
ington banner, which he made of a large 
piece of brown paper and covered with pic- 
tures and cuttings appropriate to the subject. 
He was at the time just five years old. Two 
years later he put in his time on Wash- 
ington's Birthday, when he had of course 
no school, in making the United States 
shield out of pasteboard, paper, and gold 
stars, purchased from choice with his own 
money. 

The old-fashioned paper dolls which gave 
us grown-ups so much pleasure in our 
youthful days have been largely superseded 



With Paste and Scissors. 93 

by those ready made for sale, but the pleas- 
ure I myself took and the occupation I found 
in making my own ought to be experienced 
by other children. To cut out your own 
family of dolls, regulating number, size and 
sex to suit yourself, painting their faces, 
heads and feet, and then clothing them in 
garments fashioned after the prevailing 
modes, by means of a brush and colors, is a 
most absorbingly interesting occupation. In 
this connection I recall making my own 
paint-brushes at times out of quill tooth- 
picks and fur from the cat. Peach-box 
houses, with additions made of other boxes 
as the family increases, furnished with paper 
furniture of your own making, water colors 
and etchings by yourself, carpets and cur- 
tains from your mother's piece-bag are all 
joy-producing instruments. 

Few children who come to the kinder- 
garten know how to cut out paper dolls at 
all, and none have any idea of dressing them, 
but I have never yet tried to teach a child 
to do this who was not delighted with the 
work. 



94 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

In the scrapbook to which the free- 
hand cuttings are consigned, any pretty- 
bits of folding can also be preserved. If the 
children go to the kindergarten they will, 
after they have had enough experience in 
folding, be delighted to fold at home with 
the regularly prepared papers or those 
which they form into squares themselves. 
If this latter course is pursued they must be 
able to make their squares exact by means 
of a ruler. If they do not go to a kinder- 
garten it will be an immense help to the 
mother to get one of her kindergarten friends 
to give her the ' 'school of folding' ' for use 
with her children. These friends often feel 
a little delicate about proffering services 
which may not be welcome, but they will 
gladly give any assistance in their power, 
which is really wanted. Written directions 
for this work are not very satisfactory 
and <^ would of necessity be tediously 
long. The work needs to be done to be 
really learned. Folding-papers 4x4, 5x5 
and 6x6 are used in the kindergartens. At 
home the children will take pleasure in 



IVit/i Paste and Scissors. 95 

reproducing their kindergarten folding in 
papers of a larger size as 8x8, 10x10 or 
12x12. lyarge boats, chickens and ducks of 
different sizes, families of pigs, sleds and 
furniture are a few of the things which can 
be charmingly made with folding paper. 

In one of our kindergartens the children 
use a news paper for several kinds of cutting. 
They like to have it when they want to do 
a particularly large piece of work; they use 
it for experimenting before cutting into the 
finer papers, for patterns, and for games like 
the shoe-store when nothing else could be 
had in sufi&cient quantity. 

On one occasion each child made a baker's 
cup, apron and cuffs for himself. All the 
small workmen then joined in the baker's 
parade through the primary schoolrooms, 
throwing oyster-crackers, to an appreciative 
populace, with a lavish hand, as they 
marched. 

Before leaving the subject let me call to 
mind a little soldier who paraded up and 
down our street one afternoon having a 
beautiful time with himself. He wore a 



96 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

paper- cap of his own making which was 
gay with tassels and fringe. Paper-chains 
were festooned over his martial breast and 
fell in streamers from his shoulders and at 
his side. He carried a paper-flag which he 
had made, presenting altogether a very 
striking appearance, and he was evidently 
very happy. 





Cbapter mn. 

WITH PAINTS AND PENCII.S. 

OTHING brings such peace and 
harmony into a family as the 
lead pencil, and any help given 
to a child which will enable him 
to engage in artistic pursuits is a boon to 
him and all his relatives. It is astonishing 
in view of this fact how few mothers think 
it worth while to keep in the house good 
paper and decently sharpened pencils. We 
have but to go back into our own childhood 
to realize how much greater is the pleasure 
of writing or drawing with a good pen or 
pencil than with a poor one, and on good 
paper instead of poor paper. We grown- 
ups have access at all times to good mate- 
rials and have perhaps forgotten how it feels 
to write with a blunt pencil on a piece of 
crumpled wrapping paper, hence the neces- 
sity of backward chronological excursions 
occasionally. 

97 



98 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

Two little girls who were fond of drawing 
were furnished by their father with large, 
good blank books and sharp pencils. The 
hours of quiet enjoyment which they passed 
were only a part of the good results which 
followed. There was the increased skill 
which practice gave, the growth of the imag- 
inative faculties, and the pleasure which 
grown-up friends and relatives took in look- 
ing over the books, as they often did even- 
ings after the children were in bed. The 
mother of course saw the pictures as they 
were drawn, and commended effort when- 
ever it seemed wise to do so, but most of the 
pictures were so irresistibly funny that she 
only allowed friends to see them when the 
children were not present. 

Another mother started a similar book 
for her four-year-old son, labeling the ob- 
jects drawn according to his direction, and 
it is needless to say that that finished volume 
will be a treasured one. 

The artistic mother of a lively little lad 
fell into the habit of drawing a picture for 
him every evening, he furnishing all ideas 



With Paints and Pencils. 99 



and suggestions as to what should be drawn. 
Two blank books full of these sketches were 
treasures in that family for years, and may be 
yet for aught I know. A large family of 
brothers and sisters in one of our public 
schools showed such remarkable proficiency 
in drawing that one of the teachers asked 
the mother how it happened that they were 
all talented instead of one or two, as is usual 
in families where there is any talent at all. 
She replied that drawing was one of their 
favorite occupations at home, and that in 
the evening a common amusement for the 
whole family was to set some object in the 
middle of the dining-room table, which each 
drew to the best of his ability. 

Many of our public schools do such good 
work in drawing that the children are full 
of school ideas which they would be glad to 
work out at home had they the materials. 
The younger children need these materials 
as well as the older ones, to prepare them 
for the public school work which is ahead of 
them, as well as for other and obvious 
reasons. 



100 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

The reproduction of stories told and read 
with the pencil is an unfailing resource in 
school, and could be at home. The illustra- 
tion of home happenings of interest, of 
anticipated pleasures, and of past enjoy- 
ments should be added to the list of subjects 
for and incentives to pencil work. An addi- 
tional picture drawn in an appreciated draw- 
ing book with a good pencil is a very 
different thing to the child from an illustra- 
tion on the back of an old envelope, drawn 
with the stub of a pencil, and destined 
within twenty-four hours to be thrown into 
the waste basket. 

The home blackboard has come to be an 
institution. Colored crayons added to the 
store of white chalk will bring a new interest 
into this particular play, but children, if left 
entirely to themselves, soon reach their limi- 
tations even with a possession so enjoyed 
as colored chalk. One mother has tried 
with success the experiment of keeping 
this artistic weapon in her own possession 
and giving it out as a reward of merit for 
any particularly good white drawing, which 



With Paints and Pencils. 101 

of course speedily becomes a colored one. 
Fruits, vegetables and leaves lend them- 
selves readily to representation with chalk, 
as does any other object of simple outline. 
Illustrations of stories, and copies of the 
objects laid with sticks, seeds or tablets are 
suggestive for home blackboard work, as 
well as pictures designed to represent speci- 
fic objects. 

In answer to the question, " What shall I 
draw ? ' ' one may suggest among other 
things an apple-tree, the clock, a bird-house, 
a tree whose leaves are falling, cats, dogs, 
barns, fences, ladders, houses, farm imple- 
ments, a kitchen, parlor, dining-room, bed- 
room. Thanksgiving picture, winter picture 
with lots of snow coming down, Eskimo 
scene, day picture, night picture, Christmas- 
tree stockings, chimney, fire-place, carpen- 
ter work, blacksmith work, logging camp, 
bakery, mills, sheep, windy day, rainy day, 
the ocean full of fishes, boats, and so on. 
For colored chalk besides the fruits, vege- 
tables, leaves and flowers there are the 
colored balls, the spectrum, flags of all 



102 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

nations, signal and yachting flags, college 
banners, and baseball caps. 

Draw the things in season, as sleds in 
November, " what you want " before 
Christmas, parasols in May and a cannon 
for Fourth-of-July. The same general rule 
for working out the child's thought and 
inner life applies here as elsewhere. 

Water colors may be used for the same 
work on a smaller scale as the colored chalk, 
and to it may be added the coloring of sew- 
ing cards, good pencil drawings, the wood- 
cuts in the hospital and other scrap books, 
and the paper dolls previously mentioned. 

Teach the children, if they do not find 
out for themselves, which would be bet- 
ter, that red and yellow mixed will make 
orange color; blue and yellow, green; crim- 
son-lake and Prussian blue, purple; that 
white mixed with crimson-lake will make 
pink, with Prussian blue, light blue; with 
black, gray; that black added to any color 
will make it darker, and white lighter. The 
ignorance of these simple facts shown by 
grown up assistants in the kindergarten 



With Paints and Pencils, 103 



shows plainly how many children pass 
through childhood without finding out what 
they can do with paints and brushes. 

The stencil cards sold by dealers in school 
supplies are good materials for home use. 
These pictures can be painted when finished. 
The cards are also to be found in sizes large 
enough for blackboard use. 

Painting or drawing the leaves, grasses, 
flowers, weeds and seed-pods, when once 
taught a child, gives him an inexhaustible 
resource and is not so difficult of acquire- 
ment as one would think. The best draw- 
ing teachers have even the youngest school 
children draw and paint directly from the 
object, and prefer for them the natural 
objects of simple outlines and vivid color- 
ings, as for instance, the Hubbard and crook- 
neck squashes, gourds, yellow and green 
cucumbers, sprays of pine, radishes, cherries, 
parrots' feathers, and so forth. There is of 
course no end of such objects and they are 
to be found everwhere. lyittle children like 
to trace around an object and over a picture 
on tissue paper, and while all such outlining 



104 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

and tracing is discouraged by art teachers 
for older children, the little ones, who are 
learning to use their own hands as well as 
pencils and brushes, may safely indulge 
in it. 

Cut out circles, squares, oblongs and tri- 
angles from stiff paper and the younger 
children will trace pages of them. They 
will welcome the suggestion of a definite 
something to draw inside of these figures, 
they will also enjoy making borders in this 
way and coloring them. 

The traced outline of the child's own little 
hand makes a good Christmas card or de- 
sign for a scrap-book cover. lycaves can be 
traced, colored, cut out and borders made of 
them. Pattern objects cut out of cards, 
papers, or books can be used in this way. 
A paper picture selected as suitable for trac- 
ing should be pasted on a card before being 
cut out. A child can trace pictures of wild 
geese and flying birds which will make 
pretty wall decorations for his own room. 
Bronze or maroon paper is best for this. 




abapter iff • 

CHRISTMAS AND HOLIDAY WORK. 

HE Christmas box mentioned in 
the preceding pages should be an 
institution all the year round. 
Every good bit of work which 
has no other purpose to serve can be laid 
away in it and a certain day appointed for its 
opening, which ought to be a ceremony and 
an occasion. When its contents are spread 
out there will be displayed many articles 
which can easily be transformed into iron 
and blower holders, covers for needle books, 
penwipers, blotters, memorandum books, 
backgrounds for calendars, book-marks, 
satchet packets, hair receivers, mats, pin- 
trays, Christmas cards, match scratchers and 
the many other articles which individual 
ingenuity will invent. A long list of friends 
and relatives can be remembered in this way, 
and the Christmas money so economized can 

105 



106 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

be spent for Christmas greens, fascinating 
tree decorations, and unexpected tempta- 
tions to festivity. A little paste, paper, 
paint, sachet pov;der, worsted and ribbon 
will do wonders, and the odds and ends of 
baby ribbon, and other kinds as well, which 
accumulate in a year's time, will answer all 
purposes so well that the expense of twenty 
Christmas presents will be almost nothing, 
and the child's own handiwork the chief 
part of the gift. 

The joy of the Christmas season lies as 
largely in the preceeding weeks of prepara- 
tion and anticipation as in the day of giving 
and receiving. I well remember how as 
soon as Thanksgiving had passed we children 
began to draw Christmas pictures and to 
repeat to ourselves and each other the ever- 
thrilling " 'T was the night before Christ- 
mas!'* Do not be afraid of letting the little 
folks begin too soon on their Christmas 
work, for there will be much to do. They 
can work for many afternoons and evenings 
on tree trimmings alone. Experience has 
taught many of us that children of six and 



Christmas and Holiday IVork. 107 

over enjoy trimming a tree for others much 
more than being surprised on Christmas 
morning by one carefully prepared for them 
by some one else. It will be easy to find 
people for whom a tree can be decorated. 
The many poorer and less fortunate chil- 
dren in any public school, kindergarten or 
neighborhood, can be had for the ask- 
ing. Even grown-up folks like to be in- 
vited to a Christmas tree; and I remember 
four small people who secretly bought and 
dressed a tree with which they completely 
surprised their father and mother when 
they entered the dining room on Christmas 
morning. 

For tree trimmings nothing is more satis- 
factory to the children who are fortunate 
enough to be allowed to do their own work 
than the paper chains of the kindergarten. 
For this occasion these should be of gold and 
silver as well as colored paper. They can be 
made coarse or fine, according to the age of 
the children, and superfluous quantities may 
be utilized as decorations for the room in 
which the tree is to be placed. The chains 



108 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

made of small circles, squares and triangles 
in conjunction with one-inch straws are very- 
effective. These should be hung upside 
down, so that the colored side of the paper 
will show, and here, too, gold and silver 
paper can be used to advantage. 

Pretty gold, silver and colored hollow 
cubes, to be filled with popcorn or candy, 
can be made by pasting six, five or six- inch 
papers together, each of which is folded 
thus: 

Fold the front edge to the back. Open. 

Fold the right edge to the left. Open. 

Fold each corner to the middle. Turn 
over. 

Fold each corner to the middle again. 

Cornucopias can be made of folding paper 
thus: 

Fold the front corner to the back. Open. 

Fold one edge to the middle line. 

Fold the adjacent long edge to the middle 
line. 

The result is a trapezium. Fold the right 
isosceles triangle at the top, over the two 
right scalene triangles, and you will have 



Christinas and Holiday Work. 109 

an acute isosceles triangle. Three of these 
pasted together make a good receptacle for 
candy or popcorn. The outside can be 
decorated with paint, strips of paper or 
scrap pictures. Worsted or ribbon is needed 
to make loops for hanging the cornucopias 
on the tree and for the lower end. 

For two weeks before the twenty-fifth 
have the eggs used in the house, whenever 
it is possible, broken open at one end and 
the shells carefully saved. When these 
shells are painted with luster-paint, filled 
with popcorn, and hung up by loops of 
worsted passed through two inch paper 
tops, which are cut into fanciful shapes, 
they rival the glass balls sold in the stores. 

When we were children we covered Qg% 
shells with strips of colored paper, but the 
luster-paint is an improvement on that 
more primitive method. The gold stars and 
other tiny objects sold for progressive euchre 
purposes decorate the shells beautifully. 

Nuts, cones and other trifles can also be 
painted with this luster-paint as well as 
the apples often necessary to weigh down 



110 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

the lower and heavier branches of the tree. 
Strings of popcorn and cranberries will 
always hold their own places, as will tiny- 
flags, sachet bags and Japanese trifles. A 
paper lantern, which makes a pretty decora- 
tion, is easily constructed if one folds the 
two long edges of an oblong piece of paper 
together. Holding the closed edge down, 
slit up the entire piece to within quarter of 
an inch of the top edge. Open and paste 
the two short edges together. Let the slit 
pieces be as fine as possible and the paper 
about 4x5 or 5x6. A handle is pasted on, 
by means of which the little lantern is hung 
upon the tree. 

A Christmas number of one of our educa- 
tional journals gave the following directions 
for making Christmas snow balls: 

Make a small paper cube and fill it with 
popcorn. 

Fold a piece of soft white cotton around 
it. Wind this on with white yarn, using 
only enough to hold the cotton in place. 
With a crochet needle gently pull out the 
cotton between the layers of yarn until the 



Christmas and Holiday Work. Ill 

ball is round, white and fluffy, then powder 
the ball with diamond dust. 

Sprays of pine and spruce dipped into a 
solution of alum, which is allowed to crys- 
tallize on the needles, is another Christmas 
suggestion. 

The uses of this child-decorated tree are 
many. It is a fitting spot for Santa Claus' 
operations, a place prepared for him. It 
is a celebration of the day in itself. It can 
be a joy to the e^-e for a week, and, best of 
all, as has been hinted, it can be shared 
with friends and neighbors, every family 
answering for itself the question, "And who 
is my neighbor ? ' ' 

Christmas cards decorated with the child's 
own sewing, pricking, printing or other 
handiwork, which is arranged as seems best 
around one of the many reproductions of 
famous Nativity pictures, which can be cut 
out of old December magazines, are worth 
having and keeping. A gilded star in an 
upper corner adds to its suggestiveness. 

A Christmas tree for the cat is great fun 
on the day before Christmas. Bits of raw 



112 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

meat and bunches of catnip are the most ac- 
ceptable gifts, but tiny balls on the ends of 
the branches make good cat playthings 

A sparrow's Christmas tree is best made 
of a sheaf of oats garnered for the purpose 
in the Fall, but in default of this a sympa- 
thetic mother and imaginative children can 
easily devise a substitute, as sparrows are 
not at all exclusive in their tastes. 

The reading of Christmas tales during 
the preceding da5^s and week, the learning of 
Christmas verses and the singing of Christ- 
mas songs add both to the joy of the occa- 
sion and the real Christmas spirit which 
every mother desires to foster in her child. 

''The Birds' Christmas Carol," by Kate 
Douglas Wiggin, is full of Christmas sug- 
gestions which children delight to carry out, 
if encouraged to do so. 

HAI,I,OWE 'KN. 

To this old-time festival the children 
fondly cling, as it appeals strongly to 
their imaginations. The real origin of 
the e'en is not very clear even in grown-up 
minds, and little children can be made best 



Christmas and Holiday Work. 113 



to understand it through the medium of the 
Brownies. Thanks to Palmer Cox, the 
Brownies are known and loved by all the 
children in the land, and when they are told 
that long ago the people believed that on 
Hallowe'en these little creatures came out 
and played pranks, they have no difficulty 
in taking in the situation. They can also 
be told of the helpful Brownies made known 
to us by George Macdonald and Miss 
Mulock, and they will readily welcome the 
idea of secretly doing some kind or helpful 
thing to some one in the hope that he will 
think the Brownies have been at work. Two 
Httle boys of my acquaintance invented a 
Brownie game which is a boon to their re- 
spective families. They put on their felt 
slippers and amuse themselves trying to see 
how close they can come to different mem- 
bers of the family without being seen. If 
discovered they run Hke lightning back to 
their hole which is in some mysteriously 
hidden spot. 

Weird little Brownies can be made with 
pins, peanuts and a little black paint. Real 



114 Home Occupations for Little Children, 

jack o' lanterns made of pumpkins and rep- 
resentations of them with paint, paper or 
worsted are in order on the last day of 
October, and these efforts can be sent in all 
sorts of mysterious fashions to friends and 
neighbors. Good-natured pranks and jokes 
ought to be met with sympathy, and it does 
me good to remember that on last Hallow- 
e'en a father, mother, sister and brother all 
helped the five-year-old of the family to get 
their Jersey calf up on a neighbor's porch 
by way of a surprise. 

Older children love to frolic in sheets and 
pillow-cases, pull candy, duck for apples, 
sail nutshell boats with fortune-telling 
candles aboard, and go through the list of 
all the tricks they know. Perhaps a variety 
would be a real Brownie party, if any one 
cared to take the trouble, where each child 
was dressed like one of the Brownies in the 
picture-books. 

WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY. 

A programme carried out at a recent 
Washington party given for boys and girls 
may be of interest in this connection. 



Christmas and Holiday Work. 115 

The house was decorated with flags, and 
tiny flag souvenirs bearing the name and 
the date w^ere made ready to pin upon each 
guest as he arrived. The first game was 
' ' Mixed Quotations. ' ' A number of patri- 
otic sentiments were written on slips of card- 
board and these, cut into two or more pieces, 
were thrown in a heap upon a table about 
which all could gather. Flag prizes were 
given to those putting rightly together the 
greatest number. 

' ' Twisted Words ' ' followed. Each child 
received a card on which was written : 

1. Reorgge Nostginhaw. 7. Hibstir. 

2. Hetryecrer. 8. Iranamec. 

3. Lidores. 9. Studesatiten. 

4. Areglen. iO. Kumest. 

5. Diprentes. II. Dowrs. 

6. Clawsilnor. 12. Vononmentur. 
These letters when placed in their proper 

position spell : 

1. George Washington. 7. British. 

2. Cherry Tree. 8. American. 

3. Soldiers. 9. United States. 

4. General. 10. Musket. 

5. President. 11. Sword. 

6. Cornwallis. 12. Mount Vernon. 



116 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

A certain time was allowed for twisting 
the words into their own shapes and flag 
prizes again awarded. 

After this a patriotic story was read to 
the children by a grown-up friend, and then 
all the songs of home and country known 
by the children were sung. Preserved 
cherries and Washington cake were servsd, 
and the party was over by nine o'clock. 

Another set of boys and girls who had 
learned many of our best national songs at 
school, with a sympathetic friend of the 
educational pursuasion, took advantage of 
the good sleighing to go serenading on the 
twenty-second. The warm welcomes which 
they received and the various adventures 
they had would take up in recital more 
space than these pages can afford. As 
many of our schools are now conducted a 
patriotic concert given to mothers, fathers 
and friends is easily carried through, as a 
very little rehearsing of school songs is the 
only requisite for a musical entertainment 
well worth listening to in any ordinary 
neighborhood. 



Christmas and Holiday Work. 117 

OTHER HOLIDAYS. 

For Thanksgiving Day, New Year's Day 
and Memorial Day, pretty souvenirs can be 
made of the pricking and sewing cards. 
Pumpkins, turkeys, log cabins and May- 
flowers can be easily drawn for the children, 
as well as mottoes. New Year bells, flags, 
cannon and monuments. 

A turn can be given April fool jokes 
which will bring pleasure to the giver and 
receiver; for a joke in its true inwardness is 
a surprise, and surprises can be made kindly 
as well as disagreeable. 

Material for birthday presents may be 
always at hand in an industrious household, 
with much love and good will worked into 
them by the little fingers. 

Easter eggs can be fashioned after the 
manner of the Christmas egg-shel) as well as 
the old-fashioned dyeing processes. Num- 
bers of all kinds of eggs hidden about house 
or grounds on Easter morning will be a 
delight to small hunters. Encourage them 
to prepare and give away Easter eggs and 
Easter cards. 






Cbapter $♦ 

GAMES AND PIvAYS. 

AKING balls is, properly speak- 
ing, an occupation, but one 
which leads directly to many 
games. I^ittle children like to 
feel that they can make something which 
may really be used and for this reason enjoy 
making balls in the primitive fashion here 
suggested. A piece of old cloth of any or a 
desired color is snipped with the scissors 
along one edge, ready for tearing, the cuts 
being about half an inch apart. The child 
tears the cloth into narrow strips, seeming 
greatly to enjoy the sound and the process 
generally. These strips he ties together 
and winds into a ball. If over this he can 
wind some coarse yarn and if his mother 
will fasten the end for him, he will have 
made a very good plaything. 

Six of these in the six standard colors 
will, in connection with a good kindergarten 

118 



Games and Plays. 119 

music book, furnisli material for many happy 
plays for the little child whose mother will 
take the trouble to learn the ball games and 
songs. 

The cloth ball can even be made large 
enough for an amateur football if one is de- 
sired, and soft balls uncovered by yarn will 
make good missiles for throwing at a home- 
made target. Crumpled newspaper balls 
also make good material for projectile pur- 
poses. 

The simple game of catching the ball 
would not be so overlooked in the nursery 
if mothers could see the differences which 
exist in trained and untrained hands where 
many children are compared as they can be 
in the kindergarten. Everything which 
adds to a child's skill and dexterity is of 
help to him physically and mentally, and 
the little hands which can toss up a ball and 
catch it usually belong to the possessors of 
wide-awake minds. 

Teach the children to catch balls, by play- 
ing with them yourself, and by encouraging 
them to play with each other or alone. In- 



120 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

vent some simple system of scoring the 
catches and let the children display their 
skill to appreciative fathers and uncles. 
Bounding the ball is a game which calls for 
a rubber or a tennis ball. There are in this 
play two modes of procedure, bounding from 
the floor up and from the walls down to the 
hands. For the youngest children an im- 
provised incline upon which the ball can be 
thrown that it may roll down into the wait- 
ing hands is suggested by Froebel. 

In the kindergarten when the children 
are allowed to play freely with balls it is 
interesting to note the delight they take in 
simply rolling a ball over the floor and 
chasing it, in throwing it up without any 
idea of catching it, and in rolling it back 
and forth from one child to another. The 
inspiration of numbers evidently has some- 
thing to do with this, for at home such 
amusements would not last very long, hence 
directed ball-play becomes necessary. 

A barn built of blocks into which balls 
can be rolled makes a good nursery game, 
as does a tunnel through which, or a bridge 



Games and Plays. 121 

over which cows, horses, pigs, elephants or 
any other creatures may pass, these of 
course being represented by balls. 

Hiding games, where a hidden ball becomes 
a lost cow or sheep which must be found, is 
a favorite, and rolling one ball at others 
placed in a row, is another. When blue, for 
instance, is knocked out by red, blue be- 
comes the roller and red goes into the row. 
Froebel taught his kindergartners to sub- 
stitute the children themselves for the balls 
in games where such substitution is possi- 
ble. The hiding game is easily transferred 
from the balls to the children, and the addi- 
tion of a tiny bell tinkled by the lost one for 
guidance of the seekers is much appreciated. 

The bird games so much in favor in the 
kindergarten can be played at home by sim- 
ply imitating the observed life of the real 
birds, the canary, the pigeon and the spar- 
row. I^et the small human canaries build 
a cage out of chairs, sticks and shawls and 
live a canary life inside, with crackers, 
water and some substitute for seed. Let 
the pigeons fly in and out of an improvised 



122 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

pigeon house, and the sparrows build their 
nests in a sheltered spot. With a normal, 
rightly developed imagination a child ought 
to be able to imitate the animal life 
which he sees about him in a way to furnish 
any amount of play material. In the de- 
velopment of this imagination a little help 
from the adult goes a long way, and to 
meet the child on his own chosen ground 
and act as if he really was a sparrow or a 
pigeon is to add to his power as well as to 
his pleasure. 

Horse games will always be played spon- 
taneously, but in addition to trotting in har- 
ness and drawing small vehicles there are 
games of galloping horses, wild horses, and 
hurdle-jumping horses, which are the best 
of fun and exercise. 

At Christmas time eight children or eight 
chairs harnessed up for Santa Claus' rein- 
deer, especially with a sleigh-bell accompani- 
ment in a darkened room, is dramatic to a 
degree. One young Santa Claus improvised 
a chimney of tables and chairs down and 
up which he scrambled to the intense delight 



Games and Plays. 123 



of his playfellows supposedly asleep on an 
old quilt in a corner. 

One mother told me of a coalman play 
which delighted each of her four children 
in turn. A tiny iron shovel, the button-bag 
and a coal chute made of a long pasteboard 
box, were the simple materials which made 
a most attractive play. She also allowed 
her children to spread papers on the floor 
and play with real coal, picking out the tiny 
pieces of the right size for filling a little coal 
bucket, and chopping up the larger pieces 
with a small iron hatchet. The result of 
course was very black hands and faces, but 
beaming smiles and often a joyous, ' 'See, 
mamma, I'm just like a real coalman!" 

For groups of children gathered together 
at parties, picnics, on summer evenings and 
rainy afternoons there are many plays sug- 
gested by the kindergarten for home use. 

One of the games chosen over and over 
again is: 

"Roll over, come back! 

So merry and free, 
My playfellow dear, 
Who shares in my glee!'* 



124 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

The children sit in a circle and one child 
from the center rolls the ball, usually a 
wooden one, to each of the children in turn, 
all singing the song. Later two children 
roll from the center, then three and finally 
four. This requires quick wits and close 
attention and never seems to pall. The 
words can be easily set to home music, but 
Eleanor Smith's song book No. 2 con- 
tains the most satisfactory tune we have yet 
had. Bean bags, with the accompanying 
board with a hole in it, or used simply for 
tossing in the old-fashioned game of 
* 'Teacher, ' ' should be revived once every so 
often. To play "Teacher," all stand in a 
row or class, the teacher and the one at the 
head being chosen by counting out, and the 
others ranked in the same way. The 
teacher tosses the bag to each in turn and 
whoever misses goes to the foot, which of 
course causes those below to move up one. 
If the teacher misses he goes to the foot and 
the head one becomes teacher. 

Marching with bean bags on the head and 
ruling out each one who allows his bag to 



Games and Plays. 125 

fall off makes a good game, the strife being 
to see who can keep marching longest. If 
music can be added to this game it is of 
course improved. 

A ring or figure on the carpet into which 
balls or marbles must be rolled can be the 
basis of a game if some sort of scoring is 
added. The system of counting on an 
archery target is a suggestion for this. 

The guessing games of the kindergarten 
deserv^e a place in the home as the children 
never seem to get enough of them. Objects 
for guessing may be chosen at haphazard or 
carefully selected. They may be guessed 
by feeling, by tasting, by smelling. The 
sense game of hearing has many forms, but 
its pussy-cat interpretation is perhaps the 
favorite. A blindfolded child stands in the 
middle of a ring, while the others circle 
around with or without music. When he 
raps on the floor with his cane or stick all 
are motionless and silent until the cane 
points at somebody who must take it and 
meow three times. We have in this way 
played dogs, horses, cows and other animals, 



126 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

as well as simply guessing a voice as it said 
* 'good morning. ' ' Sometimes a blinded child 
waits until another leaves the circle. Open- 
ing his eyes he guesses who is gone. This 
game is played with balls, fruits, nuts or 
any set of objects. One can easily imagine 
how interesting sense games of taste and 
smell may become without any further am- 
plification of the subject. 

Another favorite in Eleanor Smith's song 
book No. 2 reads: 

"Did you ever see a lassie 
Do this way and that ?' ' 

This is a very old friend in a new dress, 
and it is deservedly a friend, for it gives 
scope for any amount of ingenuity and orig- 
inality. I remember seeing it played in a 
kindergarten, which happily was carpeted, 
where to the amazement of the director the 
little leader lay down on the floor, wrapped 
her skirts about her, and rolled over and 
over till she reached the side of the room. 
It is worthy of note that the teacher rolled, 
too. 



Games and Plays. 127 



The old hide-the-thimble game may be- 
come hide the child, the ball, the nut or 
anything else, but it is best with music 
played loudly or softly as the occasion de- 
mands. A small object may be hidden in 
the hands of children, seated in a row or in 
a circle, which is to be found with only the 
help of the music. 

For the squirrel game all stand in a circle 
but two little squirrels, who have a hole away 
off by themselves somewhere. As the words 
are sung, or without ihem, one squirrel runs 
out and touching somebody's clasped hands 
leads him a lively chase before running back 
to the hole. If he is caught he is put inside 
the ring which is supposedly a cage, and the 
one who caught him becomes a squirrel. 
When two or more are caught they are fed 
nuts and then set free. 

A weaving play in use in the kindergarten 
makes a pretty party game. The children 
march single file in a circle. Then falling 
into pairs they march for a moment two by 
two, they halt and form two rings, an inside 
and outside ring. Those outside join hands 



128 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

but do not make a ring, as the leader in- 
tends to weave this living strip in and out of 
the inside ring, where hands are not joined. 
As she weaves all sing to the old tune of 
"Nellie Ely," 

"Over one, under one, 

Over one again. 
Under one, over one, 

Then we do the same. 
Hi, w^eavers, Ho, vi^eavers, 

Come and weave with me! 
You'll scarcely find a happier band, 

In all the land than we!" 

The weaving may become more and more 
complicated as different leaders are chosen, 

as: 

Over one, under two, etc. , 
Over three, under three, etc., 
Over one, under two, etc., 
Over three, under one, etc. 

There is an old fishing game which has 
been successfully played where there are not 
too many children. The fisherman sits 
blindfolded in a high chair with his rod and 
line in hand. Bach child takes the name 
of a fish, and, as they all swim about, one 



Games and Plays, 129 

at a time takes hold of the line and gently 
pulls it. If the fisherman can rightly guess 
what kind of a fish is nibbling at his bait he 
may become a fish while the one caught takes 
his place. This is not a kindergarten game 
but one which we used to play with Blind- 
man's Buff, puss in the comer, still pond 
and hop-scotch, good games all of them. 
A pretty kindergarten march which might be 
used at parties is as follows: All march 
around one by one, divide at a given point 
and come up two by two. Divide again 
and come up four by four. March in a 
circle four by four. Fours change into tiny 
circles and all dance round and round. 
March by fours again. Inside children take 
hold of the dress of the leader, who stands 
in the middle, and run around like the 
spokes of a wheel. March by fours again, 
divide into twos, into ones, and all dance 
away to seats. 

Trade marches, where one trade after 
another is represented by gestures, marching 
with the hands in different and changing 
positions, flying, skipping, galloping, trot- 



130 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

ting or wading are all vSUggestive for home 
purposes. The simple dancing games of 
the kindergarten can often be managed 
when anything more diflScult or elaborate is 
out of the question. 

To gallop-music let one child choose a 
partner and dance around the room, first one 
way and then the other; both choose part- 
ners and the four dance in the same way; 
four becomes eight and eight sixteen, and 
so on until all are dancing. 

The old shaker-dance beginning, "I put 
my right hand in !" is easy to learn, and a 
skipping dance where the hippitty-hop step 
is used instead of the gallop, and where the 
children hold their partners by one hand 
instead of two, can be danced like the gallop 
dance. 

To the tune of "Pop goes the weasel," or 
any other equally lively tune, joining hands 
in a ring, go to the center and back once; to 
the center and back twice; dance around to 
the right, to the center and back once again, 
to the center and back twice; dance around to 
the left, and all dance away. 



Games and Plays. 131 

Try after this a free for all gallop, and 
then ask who can dance like a Brownie. 
Tell the children that as Brownies they can 
cut what capers they like so long as their 
feet are not in evidence, for Brownies are 
never heard. Darken the room a little, play 
very lively but soft music on the upper 
notes, and the result will be worth seeing, 
conditions being favorable, which means 
that the children are as well-behaved and 
free from ungracious shyness as they should 
be if they are to go to parties at all. 

By this time all are tired and should be 
invited to seat themselves so that they face 
an open doorway. Have ready two Brownie 
dolls to which long threads are attached; 
pass these threads over the rod which holds 
the portieres, and, adjusting the threads 
from a little distance so that the Brownies' 
feet just touch the floor, pull the strings in 
time to lively dance music, and you will 
give the children a treat. 




Cbapter fir. 

WORK AND PIvAY. 

T seems a great pity in view of 
childhood's love for pets that 
they are such nuisances to so 
many adults. That children 
should have them, that the fostering of and 
caring for them has a beneficial effect on 
character, most parents admit, but the ob- 
stacles to having them are usually too great 
to be surmounted, and only in rare cases is 

a child indulged to any extent in this re- 
gard. 

One argument often brought up against 
the possession of live things is: ''The chil- 
dren tire of them so quickly !" This ought 
really to be an argument for, rather than 
against, such possession. It is child-nature 
to tire quickly of any toy, plaything or di- 
version, and even we grown-up people are 
not absolutely constant in our likes and dis- 
likes. A child is all eagerness for a certain 

132 



U^ork and Play. 133 



pet. If it is procured for him he dehghts in 
it for a time and then begins to neglect it. 
For this he is usually reproached by the 
parents who forget how entirely natural it is 
that one interest should give way to an- 
other. This fickleness should make it pos- 
sible to indulge him in fancies which seem 
to promise confusion and discomfort to the 
elders, who look at all such acquisitions as 
if they were to be permanent. Why not let 
the child have the rabbit, guinea-pig or 
pigeon which he wants so much, on condi- 
tion that he takes care of it, and when the 
time comes that he ceases to give it the 
necessary attention pass it on to some other 
child to whom novelty will give at least a 
few lessons in devotion. 

Boys who have their affairs in their own 
hands are continually exchanging their pos- 
sessions, live and otherwise, but little chil- 
dren are being perpetually compelled to con- 
duct their little affairs according to grown- 
up standards. They are expected because 
they want a bird, a fish or a lamb always to 
want it, never to tire of it, and to give it 



134 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

without help or direction the care it needs, 
whereas if left to themselves they would 
devote themselves to it for a while and then 
willingly exchange it for something else, or 
give it away with pleasure in the giving. 

Now and then an attachment between a 
child and his pet is formed too strong to be 
easily broken, and when this is the case 
surely the little one ought to have his dumb 
friend. 

The true inwardness of the whole ques- 
tion of children's deprivations in this regard 
lies in the fact that their grown-up friends 
and relatives are not willing to take the 
necessary trouble, and wherever this is the 
case of course there is nothing more to be 
said, except that for their own convenience 
they deny their children not only a pleasure 
but a God-given means of development, for 
a child's passionate love for animals is God- 
given, and given for a purpose. 

Not only is a little trouble necessary 
when pets are kept, but time and space as 
well. It is too bad that these two latter 
necessaries do not inevitably accompany a 



JVork and Play. 135 



child on his arrival into the family. No 
place for it — no time for it— it is too much 
trouble— are familiar words in most chil- 
dren's ears. 

But to the mothers who are willing to 
take the trouble, who have the time, and 
manufacture the space if need be, let me 
say a word. Do not, I beg of you, allow 
your children pets too soon, that is before 
they are old enough to know how to treat 
them. Do not give three-year-old a help- 
less kitten to maul or a dog to tease. Give 
him a bird or a fish which he cannot handle. 
If a child is thoughtlessly cruel to such ani- 
mals as he can handle he can be taught 
tenderness by having the inaccessible ones 
substituted, better than by depriving him of 
all pets and all opportunity for the exercise 
of the gentler traits of character. 

If a child is allowed to have a pet he 
should be taught how to take care of it, and 
the daily necessary attention should be as 
much his responsibility as making beds or 
dusting is his mother's. If he has to be 
continually reminded of and nagged into the 



1S6 Home Occupations or Little Children. 

performance of this duty the pet had better 
be disposed of and one sought for which 
may engender such a love in the child as 
shall make the duty a pleasanter one. 

Much has been said and written by kinder- 
gartners on the subject of toys, and those 
commended and recommended which can be 
really used by the child, such as blocks, 
crayons, paints, blackboards, stoves, garden 
tools and the like, all of which is well worthy 
consideration; but there is a word to be said 
for toys pure and simple, the tin horses, 
little wagons, toy animals, miniature houses 
and stoves and so on. Their value lies in 
the stimulus or start which they give to a 
child's imagination. With such a starting 
point a whole train or sequence of events 
connects itself, or should do so, in the 
child's mind, the expression of which forms 
the play. There are children to whom toys 
suggest little or nothing, to whom a tin 
horse is a tin horse and nothing more, and 
which are by them soon forgotten and dis- 
carded. There are others, however, to 
whom the same toys will be a beginning of 



IVork and Play. 137 



a long series of imaginative plays. I once 
knew three such children, to one of whom 
was given a tiny milk wagon. At that time 
a new cable road was the talk of the hour, 
and one constructed of string, hairpins and 
spools was in operation across the nursery 
floor. A long period of happy play was 
broken by sounds of disagreement and I was 
finally called for in a tone which told me 
that something had gone wrong. Several 
cars were on the track, the little milk wagon 
in front of them. The owner of the car 
next to it had ' * clang-clanged ' ' in vain 
and I was greeted with * ' make MoUie get 
off the track with her milk wagon ! I've 
rang and rang and she won't get off!" 
Whereupon, seven-year-old Mollie looked 
up with a placid smile, saying, " I'm a-play- 
ing milk wagon. They never get off the 
track till the car drivers get mad ! ' ' 

To these children the merest trifle in the 
way of a toy suggested any amount of play, 
and in their ability to use the toys so fasci- 
natingly displayed in the shops to round- 
eyed, wistful-looking children, I find a sug- 



138 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

gestion of their real purpose. It may be 
necessary to actually teach some children to 
play with toys, others may need only a little 
help, and the normally imaginative ones 
need no assistance at all, only occasional 
guidance. 

Child psychologists are telling us nowa- 
days that the larger motor activities are the 
first developed — in other words that the large 
muscles of the arm and forearm develop 
before the smaller finger muscles with which 
fine handwork is done or skilful manipula- 
tion accomplished. Kindergartners, believ- 
ing this to be true, have altered much of 
their work, and mothers find in the fact a 
suggestion for the home plays of their 
babies. I had long noticed that a child 
under three years old when visiting the 
kindergarten almost invarially paid but 
little attention to the blocks, balls and beads 
on the tables in his absorbed delight in the 
many red chairs. These he usually pro- 
ceeded to carry back and forth, to push, to 
haul, and to place upon the tables, only to take 
them down again. I know now that when 



U^ork and Play, 139 



he did this he was joyously seizing an oppor- 
tunity for developing his larger motor ac- 
tivities, and I would enter here a plea for 
further opportunities of the same sort for 
the babies at home. 

Most mothers will bear me out in the 
statement that the playthings which the 
baby seems to prefer are such as the clothes- 
basket, the coal-bucket, the wash-boiler and 
the ice-cream freezer; that is, when he can 
get these treasures; for usually they are 
taken away and the little tin horse or red 
ball substituted in the mistaken idea that 
these small objects are better suited to his 
little hands. People think that small toys 
are what he really wants, that he is mis- 
taken when he thinks he wants the baby- 
carriage or the foot-tub; but he is not mis- 
taken, he does want these big things, and 
mothers will do well if as far as possible 
they will allow their little folks to play with 
them. If sometimes instead of visiting a 
toy-shop to buy something to amuse two- 
year-old they will instead go through the 
basement of some large department store 



140 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

and buy a bushel-basket or a clothes-line 
instead of a rubber cat they will be working 
on the true line of development instead of 
against it. 

I remember watching a baby boy one 
summer whose choicest plaything was one 
cylindrical cedar block left in front of the 
house when the street was paved. With 
great apparent difficulty, but equal enjoy- 
ment, he carried it back and forth, from one 
place to another, for all sorts of reasons. He 
sat on it only to rest for further exertions. 
His wise mother did not object to his play- 
ing with it, neither did she insist on carry- 
ing it for him. She let nature teach her as 
well as her little son and both were stronger 
and wiser for it. 

One source of occupation too often over- 
looked is participation in the routine of 
housework. The baby always wants to 
help, and if in spite of the trouble he causes 
and the extra time his assistance takes he is 
not only allowed to help, but is actually 
taught to do so while his mind is open to 
such teaching, a very efficient little worker 



Work and Play. 141 



will be developed in a few years' time and 
much real occupation of a pleasurable sort 
provided. This applies equally to boys and 
girls, for neither should be deprived of any 
' ' something to do " for which the home life 
affords opportunity. Sympathetic commen- 
dation for effort is all that most children need 
in the way of incentive to work, and the 
habits thus formed provide for future years. 
Real tools, with a little help while the 
children are learning to use them, should 
be a part of every home outfit. Instead of 
the cheap and useless tool-chests sold as toys 
the real tools purchased as a child grows up 
to their uses will be found to yield the best 
results. A very small child can drive tacks 
into a pine board, and gimlets, augers, saws, 
hammers and other tools can be used long 
before it will be safe to put the sharper ones 
into the little carpenter's hands. Help him 
to make real things, bird-houses, hurdles, 
dolls' -sleds, chairs, tables, trellis-sticks and 
so on. With a very little help and encour- 
agement an active child will soon plan, 
execute and invent for himself. 



142 Home Occupations for Little Children. 

Real gardening and real work of all sorts 
is play to children when they are rightly 
lead into it. They cannot be expected to do 
it altogether alone or to keep it up by them- 
selves, but in company with a sympathetic 
mother who understands how to make real 
partners of them the amount they accom- 
plish is often surprising. 

Fortunate are those children who have an 
attic in which they can go and play ! Here 
they find the space they crave and the free- 
dom they love ! Here is a playroom where 
they can pound nails into the walls and 
where they need not be afraid of breaking 
things ! I know one attic where in winter 
the garden benches are placed, and the ham- 
mock and swing put up. Here the children 
play for hours, in hats and coats if need be, 
and often with open windows, on days when 
they cannot go out of doors. I know 
another attic which has become a gymna- 
sium, where there are turning poles, ropes 
and rings, punching bags, and best of 
all, the painter's ladder mentioned in an- 
other chapter. The children climb this 



JVork and Play, 143 

ladder, walk up it, slide down it, go up 
hand over hand, weave themselves through 
it and do with it the thousand other things 
which would only occur to an active and 
healthy child. 

Manufacturing some sort of a ''little 
house," furnishing it, and living in it, is an 
occupation which children love, to which they 
are devoted for weeks which they utterly for- 
get, and to which they fondly return. In- 
deed, this is true of most of their plays and 
toys as it is with the pets. Parents often 
complain that the expensive bicycle, pony- 
cart, doll-house or tent is used for a while 
and then neglected. This, let me repeat, 
is only natural, and the children will return 
to these treasurers only to discard them 
and return again. Do not quarrel with 
nature and she will do her best for you. 

She is herself a fine playfellow at all 
times, but especially in her boisterous moods, 
and she suits the children excellently when 
they are in a similar frame of mind. She 
provides splendid big mud puddles for fortu- 
nate barelegged youngsters to splash in! 



144 Home Occupations for Little Children. 



She sends big winds for children to have fun 
with, an old umbrella and a wagon or tri- 
cycle being part of the play ! She sends 
warm summer showers to be enjoyed in bath- 
ing suits ! She gives ice ponds, snowdrifts, 
and heaps of leaves to roll in as well as sun- 
shine and flowers and the whole beautiful 
''Out of Doors!" 



LIST OF MATERIALS. 

1. Music Books. 17. Sand. 

2. Story Books. 

3. Glass Globe or Aqua- 

rium. 

4. Garden Box. 

5. Blocks. 

6. Bean bags. 

7. Large Rubber Ball. 

8. Colored Paper. 

9. Paints. 

10. Chalk. 

11. Colored Crayons. 

12. Blackboard 

13. Straws & Parquetry 

Papers. 

14. Hailman Beads. 

15. Glass Beads 

16. Kindling. 



18. Cedar Blocks. 

19. Clay. 

20. Weaving Materials. 

21. Bristol board cut 8x8 

22. Worsted & Worsted 
Needles. 

23. Pricking Needles. 

24. Scissors. 

25. Gum Tragacanth 
Paste. 

26. Pencils. 

27. Drawing Book. 

28. Scrap Books 
Mounting. 

Tools. 
Garden Tools. 



for 



29. 
30. 



